Dance!

My dance instructor [unnamed just in case she wouldn't want me naming her here...plenty of you know her] got permission to bring me to the weekly rehearsal of a local vintage dance troupe this evening. It was very cool. They're preparing for a performance next week, so the rehearsal was a lot of going over stuff they already knew, and not so much introducing new stuff. Much of it was well beyond my ability to pick up with little/no demonstration, and I spent a fair amount of time watching. Which was cool.

I also proved myself quite adequately (at least to my satisfaction). I picked up a (late 19th c.) quadrille more or less on the fly (watch head couples dance through once, then immediately dance as side couple) and got through it quite adequately with only minor mistakes/style errors. Similarly with the scotch reel for four, which I danced through with only issues of style after a single walk-through, including picking up a figure I didn't really know and steps I'd never seen before. The steps were clumsy, but in a "need to work on that/you do that differently than we do" way, not a "that's totally wrong"/"I got lost and messed things up" way.

The really exciting news here is that I've been invited to attend more of their rehearsals in the future. I attribute a fair amount of this to my instructor vouching for my ability and introducing me in a manner which encouraged them to want to dance with me more, and a fair amount to my being male and healthy. The reel did quite a bit to earn it, though, so I'm very pleased.

More on other bits of life here in the Boston area to come.