Challenge #6: SKILL - Complete!

So I think it's time to declare another one of my 2005 challenges complete. Challenge #6 was to "learn a new skill to a minimum level of competence". The skill was not specified, but I was on the lookout for potential ones.

So what did I do? I have learnt to dance!

For the last five (ish) months I have been going to dancing lessons on a Monday night at a local country club - that makes the place sound a little grander than it is. Maybe "odd little bar and dance floor next to a driving range" would be a better description... But anyway. The dancing I have been learning has been a mixture of ballroom and Latin-American style dances. We normally do a dance for between 1 and 3 weeks. So far I have tackled, in alphabetical order:

Cha-Cha-Cha
Foxtrot
Mamba
Quickstep
Samba
Salsa
Argentine Tango
Waltz

And possibly another one that I've forgotten. So far I've had a whonking 16 lessons - that's equivalent to one a minute for just over a quarter of an hour. But that equivalence doesn't give you the true level of my new skill, since the lessons actually last for an hour and a half.

The strange thing is that I've been really enjoying it. Despite dancing of this type having been popularised recently through various celebrity and non-celebrity dancing programmes on the television, I think it's fair to say that Dancing isn't really cool. Well, sod that. Babylon 5 isn't cool, but it's still great!

I'm quite looking forward to attending some kind of social occasion where I might be able to use the new-found foot-moving ability. Something like a wedding. The last wedding I went to was last year and I was dancing with a girl there but neither of us I think really knew what we were doing. Moving our feet without tripping each other up was the order of the day, with the odd twirl thrown in. But no longer. Next time I'll say: "Girl, would you like to dance?". She'll say "yes!". I'll dance my half of a Cha-Cha-Cha opposite her and she'll get all confused and fall over. So that might not be considered much of a progression.

Is it better to be two people where one is ignorant and the other has knowledge and hence is aware of the ignorance of the other, or to be both together in the blissful ignorance?

So what, you might ask, makes today the time to declare this challenge complete? Why do 16 lessons give me a "minimal level of competence"? What did I lack after 15 lessons? What might I have found after 17? Good questions all.

The reason I declare this complete is that today I attended a Social Dance (organised by the Monday night people and at the same location). An event whose main purpose was for people to turn up and dance a variety of dances to a variety of songs. I was able to dance the Quickstep, the Waltz, the Tango and the Cha-Cha-Cha not-too-badly. And the Samba very badly. So best to ignore that one.

As ever with something like this, it can take a while for people to pluck up the courage to start dancing, especially if the dance floor is quite empty. Today I wasn't quite allowed this "while". The dancing teacher lady came over to our corner and made me dance with her. Which was quite embarassing to be honest. But after that, it was easy! I'm just a little worried now that she might start picking on me at the actual dancing lessons to demonstrate things. And she now knows our names...

One of the best things about tonight is that there was plenty of room on the dancefloor, and so we were able to move about without being bumped into by amateurs. That really makes it much easier to get a good practice in. On a less good side, due to the current weather it was bloody hot!

But it's all good!

So the challenge is done! And the lessons will continue. Who knows where this one will end up.

Three things to finish up:

1. Many thanks to my dancing partner of these last few months for putting up with my occasional lapses of memory, balance and pure style. You've been great.

2. Whilst waiting outside for our taxi home this evening, the dancing teacher lady came out and said hello to us and then said that I "had fantastic alignment in my waltz". There were three witnesses to this. I was actually complimented on my dancing. She said that she'd been watching me on Monday and it was also the Waltz I did with her at the start of the evening. It's possible that this may have been faint praise of the style "Your alignment was great, but your feet were all over the place and you smell of chips", but I'm going to take it as a compliment. Actually, the second set of kind words in as many days!

3. Don't tell my mum about any of this. I'll never live it down.

As the band Hal said: "What a lovely dance..."