Can I Have This Dance?

When my wedding planning was in the very early stages - all fairytale and romance rather than difficult decision making and parting with large amounts of money - I had a little fantasy about our first dance. I imagined myself twirling gracefully around the dance floor in the loving arms of my new husband, Cinderella style. In order to avoid the reality of an awkward 3 minute shuffle, I suggested that we took dancing lessons. My lovely in-laws, keen sequence dancers themselves, funded some private lessons as a birthday gift for me to get us started. We weren't exactly twirling gracefully but we were learning a few basic steps and thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

Our dance teacher is actually a dog trainer by profession. Sometimes her people skills can be a bit lacking. You do feel that if you get through a particularly tricky combination of steps without mishap, she'll be waiting to reward you with a Good Boy Choc Drop and a pat on the head. And when she shouts "HEEL!' in reference to your badly executed footwork, you do feel an overwhelming urge to go running to her side, panting and looking up expectantly! But we were learning.

I only ever intended to do the bare minimum - concentrate on the waltz and choreograph a simple routine that would fool our wedding guests into thinking we knew what we were doing. However, before long we had joined a regular class, bought a Victor Silvester CD and had tickets for our first ball. The ball was a very glamorous red and black themed affair and we quite literally danced all night.

We possibly should have got some professional help with our wedding choreography but given that the venue we finally chose only had a relatively small dance floor, we decided to keep it all as simple as possible  and just use the routine we knew. My grown up daughters provided the music - a shortened, slowed down version of  High School Musical's 'Can I have this Dance'. Despite the disdain of my eldest daughter (Liberty) with regards to my song choice,  they did a wonderful job. It wasn't exactly the 'Cinderella style' of my fantasy - especially given that my youngest daughter ran onto the dance floor and tried to grab my dress mid spin turn! - but it was a lovely moment for me and now a treasured memory.

After a short break to have my son,  we are now back at our regular Sunday group class trying to master the tango and the quickstep at 'Silver' level. Liberty has managed to persuade her boyfriend to join her in the beginners class and I am so looking forward to the day when we can dance together - maybe at a glamorous ball or a wedding....?