Dance Lessons

My dad and I finally chose a song for our father-daughter dance!  Well, actually, my dad was being indecisive and I was so in love with this song, he agreed to use it.  So what did we choose?



"Father and Daughter," by Paul Simon.  The lyrics of this song choke me up every time I hear it.  It's so sweet, and it really did make me think of my dad the first time I heard it.  Seriously...how sweet is this?

I'm gonna watch you shine / Gonna watch you grow / Gonna paint a sing / So you'll always know / As long as one and one is two / There could never be a father who loved his daughter more than I love you

The best part?  There's also the voice of a child that sings backup vocals now and then.  ACK!  My heart!  Its strings are being tugged!

Anyway.  We decided on this song, but then realized we had no idea how to dance to it.  It's not a simple "sway" song like some of the slower ones out there.  It's got a pretty distinct rhythm.  So, we did what any clueless father-daughter team does.  We signed up for a dance class!

I signed us up for a 50-minute class at PA DanceSport near Hershey.  Our lesson was with John, who turned out to be a great teacher.  Luckily, I had 12 years of dance experience behind me, and my dad had taken a lesson with my sister 2 years ago when she got married.  So we weren't total newbies.  John explained to us that the song had the perfect rhythm for a Rhumba. 



The basic step for the Rhumba is the "slow, quick-quick, slow, quick-quick..."  This can be done in a simple box or turning.  John started off by teaching us the simple box, and then taught us how to turn it.  Once we mastered that, he showed us how to spin me.  It's a bit complicated, but we eventually got it [mostly] down.  We put that together with the box and the turn.  Then, John taught us a couple of other "fancy" moves - the "open" and the "rock."  The rock is basically where you step from side to side for the "quick-quick" part, and the open is where you go from side to side, opening your body up to the middle of the dance floor.  Hard to explain, but it's nifty.  We got those [mostly] down, too.  John started to try to teach us a couple of other fancy moves, but I killed it.  I didn't want us to be totally overwhelmed and end up confusing ourselves out on the dance floor. 

All in all, the lesson went really well.  My dad did a great job - I was really proud of him!  John kept telling him he should come and take additional lessons, or just come to the group dances.  He picked it up really quickly.  John also kept telling us that we were adorable.  Awww...  We had a great time, and I'm really really glad we took the lesson.  I think we'll surprise everyone!