Get In Line!

Last night some friends and I went line dancing. Although I love bluegrass music this was my first time ever getting down in line to it. I was not very good. Part of this is because everything I know about line dancing comes from Back to the Future Part III; part of it is because, although I am known as a hell of a dancer, I had never moved my body in this way. There are an array of bizarre moves where you are weaving through people that were hard for me to grasp. That being said I am now done with my first line dancing experience.

Pictured: Frenchie, Me, HotWheels and some random girl who was in love with us

The crew was me, Frenchie, HotWheels and TheDick. Some of you may have been line dancing before, I would be willing to bet your experience was not like mine. We didn't do it at a bar, rather it was at a community center that was frequented by HotWheels' mom and other people from their Quaker meeting. There were a few young people but by far the majority of attendees were older hippie people. Right when we showed up an older, short black woman came up to us and said to the group "ok the dance just started... this is the best time to hop in. WHO WANTS TO DANCE?" Both HotWheels and TheDick looked around and whistled and after the woman repeated enough time "SOMEONE GET IN AND DANCE WITH ME" I eventually volunteered just to make this woman stop yelling at me. Now, I did not know the steps to the dance but because I had been commanded to start dancing I looked around and did what I was told. After a while I started to get the steps but that certainly didn't stop this woman from yelling at me. "Now DOH-SEE-DOH" she would yell. "Yeah... it's not like I haven't just done it right the last 25 times" I would say under my breath, afraid to further induce her wrath. 

The funniest thing about this experience was the different kind of people who showed up to quaker line dancing. There were a few other young people who were just looking to have fun (like us), a few people who were old hands at line dancing and more than happy to help us get it with a friendly smile, and then a few bitter old line dancing journeymen who were pissed that amateurs would muddy the waters and waste their time. There was a few people dressed very preppy, a lady with a padwan learner braid and a lot of tie-dye. By far my favorite of all the outfits I saw was this guy:

The thing to note about line dancing: it is actually quite the workout. Around the second or third dance I started getting very hot and had to take a break. At one point I went to the bathroom and saw a couple other guys changing shirts and re-applying deodorant. Frenchie was getting very sweaty as well (although as an attractive girl I am told she was merely "glowing.") 

Overall, I think I would go line dancing again, but I would rather not go back to this place. I think it would be much more fun to do it with all young people that are equally ignorant of what they are doing (or at least friendly and patient.) I would also like to be drunk. It is my understanding that there are places where this is possible here in the city so I will have to do some more research.