Dancing the Night Away

Ah, if that were only me! On Saturday, I attended the Christmas Gala at Dancesport, the dance studio that I go to here in New York. Because of my work schedule, I wasn't able to attend the Halloween Party at the studio, and I really didn't want to miss this event, so I made sure to leave the night free and I'm glad that I did.

It also gave me an excuse to wear the pretty party dress that I bought to wear when Fun Guy invited me to a New Year's Eve party last year, before he dumped me the day after Christmas. Correction, stopped calling me which is the same as dumping me as far as I'm concerned.

The dress was a BCBG Max Azria that I found on sale at Lord & Taylor. It's black, sleeveless, made of jersey with two trailing chiffon scarves that fall from the waist like a train. I wore silver evening sandals and carried this cute black purse that I bought for a friends wedding and never used because I forgot it at home (I ended up carrying my make-up case as a purse instead).

They served hors d'ouevres, and champagne which unfortunately was flat. Of course, that didn't stop me from drinking it. I met a lot of of lovely people that I hadn't spoken to before from my dance classes, and I actually got to dance, although not as much as I would have liked. Part of the problem is that I haven't been able to go to the practice parties so everyone was dancing with people that they knew.

There were two rooms for dancing, the one in the front was playing tango music and the one in the back salsa. The salsa room had a live band which was great and it was fantastic to watch people dancing particularly those who seem to have been dancing salsa since they were in utero. The way they moved was fantastic. It made me really want to step up my salsa classes. Plus they also played songs that you could cha-cha and merengue too. Since no one was asking me to dance, I just danced a little by myself, since the music was too good to waste. When I did get asked to dance, it was nice to know that I could follow a partner that I didn't know, and not just the people I dance with in class. That was something that always concerned me. Would I know what to do? Would I be able to follow someone's lead? I amazed myself frankly. Now I just want to go dancing all the time.

The instructors also performed a little show that was amazing. My International Latin teacher, Anya was phenomenal, but then I knew that. She was on the Dancing with the Stars tour last year. But now she's added salsa to her repetoire, which she's only been dancing a year, and she was fantastic. And the tango instructors, unbelievable. I love to watch tango, but I can't imagine dancing it if you don't have a steady partner. It was also hysterical to watch one of my other teachers, Toby, attempt to do hip-hop. Not really his style!

I talked a bit with some of the women from my salsa class and we all agreed that if we won the lottery we would be in dance class all the time. I love swing dancing and I would love to try fox-trot and quick-step but I don't have the time or the money right now. Dancing is an expensive hobby, even more expensive than my other hobby, drinking. When you factor in the cost of private lessons, which you really need to take if you're going to improve, you start to go crazy. As it is, I'm on the frequent dancer package, which means I can take as many classes as I want a week, but it's more expensive than going to New York Sports. But more fun, than running on a treadmill anyday.

I stayed until about one o'clock in the morning and then it was time for this Cinderella to go bed before she turned into a pumpkin.

Thanks for reading,

EKM