Subscribe
Dan is actually my boyfriend and he agreed to write about a fun Dance TV-related thing that happened a couple of weeks ago. Thanks, Dan!
So, anyway, I’m sitting around with my girlfriend, Lynn and my niece, Erin a couple of Saturdays ago. It was one of the first really hot days this summer, and we had just come from Erin’s dance lesson. When I say dance lessons, it’s because I really don’t understand why this little girl needs lessons-she can DANCE! She’s 13, and I’m 51, but, fortunately for me she hasn’t fully grasped the real truth that I’m not even remotely cool. I think at some point I may have been cool, but it was such a brief period on my life that it came and went without my knowledge. Now, most of my time with her is spent in a conscious effort to perpetuate that myth.
It seems to me that most of American culture nowadays is seduced by reality and dance shows. I, however, do my best to pretend that they don’t exist, and draw my television sustenance from the Discovery or History channels. Ironically, this fare is often the very same “entertainment” that elicited 30 minute naps in fifth hour science class in High School.
Reality shows for me aren’t, and if you ain’t dancing to Freebird, then you just ain’t dancing-I mean, that song has it all; you can slow dance and fast dance all in one song, and fulfill your dance obligations for the night. But like I said, my truths are not the truths of a teenage girl.
So, being the cool uncle, after dance class, we were channel surfing; I noticed that they were airing Wings at War, a history of World War I, and something about the Civil War, on the History channel. On a Saturday, that’s the trifecta for a guy like me. My heart secretly swooned, but I scrolled on by pretending not to notice.
“Stop,” she said, “let’s watch this dance show”.
Quite frankly, I would rather drive roofing nails in my forehead than watch that show, but hey, I’m cool, so, without any hesitation I flicked on the show. We sat together on the couch watching the show. She was actually paying attention to the dance moves; I was paying attention to the clock.
When the show was over, they had some dance group that apparently everybody in America knows but me demonstrate how to do these dance moves.
The move is called “walkin’ it out.” These dance guys describe the move and then one of them springs off of the couch with the agility of a ninja and demonstrates the move. I actually paid attention. He did it slowly a couple of times, and it didn’t look all that difficult. Then, it happened; I blurted out, “I could do that.”
Erin rolled her eyes and laughed out loud. “Yeah, right,” she said.
Remember the part about me keeping the myth alive?
Well, I walked it out that Saturday; slowly at first, then a little faster. Lynn and Erin howled, and I kept walkin’ it out (complete with the finger snaps) at every opportunity. Hell, I even walked it out when we went to the grocery store. When my brother came by to pick her up, she made me walk it out for him–he laughed too. To me, there is nothing cooler than making that little girl laugh.
So, if laughter is any indication of where I rate on her cool meter my myth lives on, but I gotta tell ya that my hips and thighs were sore for a week.
[I have to give some explanation so you will understand how much of a departure this was for Dan. The "dance show" was the live auditions of America's Best Dance Crew, season 2. And right after it aired, Shane Sparks and Jabbawockeez demonstrated some dance moves. Dan couldn't have cared less that Shane Sparks is only one of the most accomplished hip-hop choreographers anywhere, or that Jabbawockeez won the first season of ABDC, but I just thought it might give you the complete picture. He's a wonderful man, and although he is modest, he really can dance.]
