I’ve always wanted to learn how to dance.  As a little girl, I took tap and ballet lessons from Carolyn Rastatter at a place called The Hulabaloo.  It was a little building located on McClelland Avenue in Erie, approximately where ICE is now located.  The original building doesn’t exist anymore.  I took lessons for, if I remember correctly, two years.  I wasn’t particularly good, but a do remember the shuffle-shuffle-ball-change-step move.  In any case, when The Hulabaloo closed, that was the end of my dancing career… and the beginning of my piano lessons.  I’m pretty sure I was even worse at the piano than I was at dancing.  But, just like I still have my tap shoes, I also still have my piano.

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In any event, I never stopped wanting to learn how to dance.  However, I had resigned myself to the fact that since I’m not particularly rhythmically inclined (actually I’m a bit of a klutz), I should probably stick to being a spectator.  But a few years ago, one of my very best friends was about to get married and I was to be her only attendant.  I’d been in tons of weddings before this one (and have an entire wardrobe of atrocious, not to mention expensive, dresses to prove it), but most of those weddings were when I was in my twenties and, at that point, the weddings of my friends were more about the party and less about the dancing.  Any “slow” dancing was always of the lame prom variety.

But, you know, you get to a certain age, and you decide that it’s time to do things properly… with a bit more style and panache.  So, for their wedding gift, I sprung for dance lessons for the bride and groom.  First we took some group lessons, then we took some private lessons.  And then the bride and groom took even more private lessons so they could learn an entire fancy-schmancy routine for their big bridal dance at their wedding reception.  And their foxtrot was fantastically phenomenal.

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Not only did the happy couple learn how to dance well, but, much to my surprise (shock, more like it), I learned how to dance, too.  While I’m not going to win any prizes or start a big ballroom dancing career, I can do a relatively decent foxtrot… at least decent enough to not embarrass myself or my partner.  I even managed to not step on his feet.  Or trip on my own.

My point is that if I can learn to dance, I’m relatively sure anyone can… and there are plenty of places where you can take lessons.  Candy and I and our respective partners took lessons from Connie Lauffer Shoop.  If she can teach me, she can teach anyone.

Or maybe you’re not so interested in being able to waltz at a wedding or ramba at a reunion.  Perhaps you’d rather learn ballet, tap, jazz, or modern dance.  How about a little bellydancing?  Hip hop trip your trigger?  Check out your options.  The cost of dance classes varies widely and depends upon the type of dance you’re interested in and whether you’re comfortable in a group setting or would prefer private lessons.  Not surprisingly, private lessons are a bit more expensive.

There’s also a free option, if you’d like to give it a whirl.  There are tons of perfectly free dance lesson videos on YouTube.  From bellydancing moves to beginning tango (rose optional) and just about everything between, you can find lessons on YouTube.

So don’t just sit there… go to your closet and grab your, your, your, your, your boogie shoes and have the time of your life.

* photo credit:  unknown… sometime in the psychedelic ’70s

** photo credit:  ron richardson

This I’m Bored column is dedicated to Candy, who passed away earlier this year.  You couldn’t ask for a better friend.  May she still be dancing somewhere.