Y'all! I did a NEW THING!!!
Sometimes I forget I'm a grownup and can basically do whatever I want. I got a notion last week to find a way to try something I've always wanted to try, and very quickly found a way to do so.
On Tuesday night, I took my first ever Irish dance class.
It was delightful. Because of my years of ballet training etc. I'm a quick study, so the learning curve was flatter than it would be for anyone walking in blind--a fact for which I am exceedingly grateful. I managed to learn a decent chunk of a reel in one class. Most of you are looking at that going, "Yeah? So?" Trust me, it's trickier than you'd think, especially when your body keeps trying to do it balletically (yes, I know that's not a real word. It is now.)
It's certainly a different class atmosphere than I'm used to. Ballet etiquette is as starchy as you'd think it is. You pay attention, don't talk when the instructor is talking, take direction and correction with a 'thank you', and stand nicely to the side when you're waiting for your turn. Oh, and don't take it personally when you get smacked. Now, I have it on authority that the class I experienced wasn't exactly normal. There had been a competition a week or so before, and the lady who runs the school had much wisdom to impart, so there was a great deal more talking in time that would usually be spent dancing. Also, her daughter wasn't there, and apparently the daughter tends to run a much tighter ship, so once she's back I'm sure things will play out a bit differently. That said, the lady who runs the school is THE BUSINESS. She is legit, my friends. Like, smoky-pubs-of-old-Dublin legit. I may be ever so slightly in love with her. I could listen to her talk all day. There's something soothing and homey about the lilt of the Irish accent. But I digress. The point is, this class was mostly-controlled chaos for several reasons, but not all of them had to do with classroom management.
The thing about Irish dance is that you learn sets of steps for different types of music--reels, jigs, hornpipes--and run them together. You just keep building and adding variations until you have something that lasts a whole piece of music. At least, this is the sense I'm getting from one class. I don't think my observation is too far off the mark, though. The class that I'm taking is an adult class, but not-being-children is the thing we have most in common. The range of experience runs from my one class to a literal lifetime, so you can imagine the differences you'd see in one go-round of 'everybody do your reel'. And that's exactly how it's done, by the way. In small groups, everyone cycles through and does their sets a few times, then the tempo changes and they repeat, but with a jig instead of a reel, and on and on.
Now, where does that leave me?
Standing at the back, actually. BUT, I had the good fortune to be adopted by a couple of the proficient dancers and they got me started. It was odd, though. I'm so accustomed to the rigidity of a ballet class, where there is absolute order to everything, and even the less-rigid-but-still-frameworked tap classes I attend that this whole 'just start dancing' thing was a left-field shock. No warm up? No set exercises? Not even a 'we're all going to learn this thing now' section? It was weird, my dudes. Weird.
But I loved it. I'll be going every week.
And it means I need more dance shoes.
Oh, darn!
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