Date #15 - Slow Dancin'...Swaying to the Music

We can't dance.
Not together anyway.

There I said it.

Pretty embarassing, but our dancing together consists of maybe getting up once or twice during a slow song at a wedding, after many adult beverages, and moving together in a circle, round and round and round. The white man rotation dance.

I do love to fast dance, and I will do so with my female friends all wedding long, and while I'm not quite as bad as Elaine Benis (Watch her here), I will admit that my husband married the only girl with Latin blood who cannot shake her booty.

While I have no desire to replicate the moves on Dancing with the Stars... I never even watch the show... it would be nice to get on the dance floor with TH and actually move around without completely embarassing ourselves.

So date #15 was a private couple's ballroom dance class. Such a deal, only $25 with a Buy With Me voucher. So off we went to Ballroom in Boston, which happens to be neither. It is a mirrored dance studio in a non-descript brick building that also houses a gym, karate studio, and bakery....and it's in Newton.

It was just a 45 minute class, where we learned the Rumba. The owner/instructor was a young girl who really did a great job....given that she didn't have much to work with. It didn't take long for us to master the basic Rumba box steps,  however I can't imagine we'll ever do it in real life without counting out loud LOL!

Because we were so advanced and at the head of the class, our instructor threw in a Rotation, and a Sway. Whee....watch us now! We were without a doubt, the best couple in the room. Okay, we were the only couple in the room...it was a private lesson, remember?

All too quickly our class was over and, of course like most of our dates, it ended in the souvenir shop. Not really, but the instructor did produce our exit card with prices for future lessons. You know, in case we need a refresher course. Our class was a bargain at only $25 and well worth the investment. But I think I can safely guarantee that we won't be shelling out $85 for the next private lesson.

Of course we still haven't done any of our homework, which was to practice for 5 minutes a day. But TH has been showing off his dance skills to anyone who will watch.

So now, for the next 35 years, catch TH and me on the dance floor as we dance in a box (no longer in a circle going round and round), with the occasional rotation and sway. We'll be the couple counting out loud 1,2,3,4,5,6!

Because our voucher was set to expire and I had already cancelled once before, our class was scheduled for 5:15pm. But as early as it was, date #15 unceremoniously concluded at 6:00 because I had another date waiting. (I always wanted to say that)!

My BFF (MC) and I had tickets to the Wilbur Theater later that evening to see Frankie Valle in concert. Now there's a white man who can dance. Well maybe not so much anymore. The concert was two days after his 77th birthday, and old Frankie did not move too well on stage looked great. He stayed in place and swayed, often holding his back, while his new and improved quartet of young studs replicated all the old Four Seasons' signature moves including the finger snapping and popping on their toes.

The concert was lots of fun singing all those old songs and walking down memory lane. And, even though Frankie still has his amazingly high falsetto singing voice, I don't think he can yell out the loud notes anymore. The audience may not have noticed, but everytime a song needed a loud shout-out, he would hold the microphone towards us and let the audience sing out phrases such as I Love You Baby, or Walk Like a Man, or Rag Doll.

And though the younger generation may possibly only remember Frankie from his character on the Soprano's, the Wilbur Theater audience (with an average age of 70) knew every word to every song in his repertoire. And  more power to Frankie for riding the coat-tails of the Jersey Boy success into concert sellouts in his 60th year in the business.

Here's a photo from his official website.