For those who don't want to wade through my 25-page blog post, here are 
the highlights:

On Saturday night it was my dance school's annual Summer Dance. 
Basically, put a bunch of people in a room and dance the night away! 
Steve said two things at the start of the evening: "It's going to be a 
lot of fun, and it's going to be VERY hot!" He was right on both counts.


in a room with no ventilation and make then dance for 4 hours straight, 
you can imagine how warm and humid it gets!)

Most of the dancing is Ballroom & Latin. (So, dances such as the Waltz, 
Quickstep, Mambo, Rumba, and so forth.) There are a few other dances 
dotted around though - including my dear favourit, Rock & Roll. :-D

In particular, my dance school has a special solo dance which is always 
danced to the tune of "Tiger Feet", by Mud. Go Google that; I'm sure 
*somebody* will have illegally put it online somewhere. The main point 
is that it's fast, frenetic party music. If this doesn't jump-start your 
party, your guests are dead!

I don't know who concocted the dance that goes with it. It's not a 
complicated dance. In fact, it's very simple. Note, however, that simple 
/= easy. In this case, the difficulty is just *surviving* until the end 
of the track. It's almost 4 minutes straight, with no pauses, and I 
estimate approximately 200 BPM or so.

So Tiger Feet is a punishing dance track. But the music is so uplifting, 
if you actually survive it, you can't help but feel exhilerated by the 
end. I have a great enthusiasm for this thing, and I know for a fact 
that I'm not alone.

Anyway, near the end of the night, I asked for Tiger Feet to be played. 
Debbie looked at me like I was crazy, but agreed to play it anyway. So, 
at twenty to midnight, the strains of Mud were heard over the PA system.

I rushed out onto the dance floor, and in a fit of over-excited 
exuberance, I executed this huge knee-slide across the dance floor. 
Debbie loved it so much that she actually stopped the music and made me 
do it again so everybody could watch. (The first time nobody was really 
paying attention.)

I like to believe that the cheer that went up when I did it was 
admiration. ;-)

And then, of course, I (plus a few other brave / stupid souls) just had 
to remain upright for 4 minutes. It was the last dance I danced that 
night, and damn, I gave it everything! My sides hurt by the time I 
finished, but hell, what a dance...

When you consider that I'm usually afraid of my own shaddow, and I run a 
mile if somebody in the street so much as looks at me the wrong way, 
doing crazy knee slides on an empty floor in front of 80 people, or 
dancing right at the very front of the floor where everybody can see me 
is pretty out of character. But hey, you gotta live a little, right? :-D

Post a reply to this message

Invisible wrote:
> For those who don't want to wade through my 25-page blog post, here are 
> the highlights:
> 
> On Saturday night it was my dance school's annual Summer Dance. 
> Basically, put a bunch of people in a room and dance the night away! 
> Steve said two things at the start of the evening: "It's going to be a 
> lot of fun, and it's going to be VERY hot!" He was right on both counts.
> 

> in a room with no ventilation and make then dance for 4 hours straight, 
> you can imagine how warm and humid it gets!)
> 
> Most of the dancing is Ballroom & Latin. (So, dances such as the Waltz, 
> Quickstep, Mambo, Rumba, and so forth.) There are a few other dances 
> dotted around though - including my dear favourit, Rock & Roll. :-D
> 
> In particular, my dance school has a special solo dance which is always 
> danced to the tune of "Tiger Feet", by Mud. Go Google that; I'm sure 
> *somebody* will have illegally put it online somewhere. The main point 
> is that it's fast, frenetic party music. If this doesn't jump-start your 
> party, your guests are dead!
> 
> I don't know who concocted the dance that goes with it. It's not a 
> complicated dance. In fact, it's very simple. Note, however, that simple 
> /= easy. In this case, the difficulty is just *surviving* until the end 
> of the track. It's almost 4 minutes straight, with no pauses, and I 
> estimate approximately 200 BPM or so.
> 
> So Tiger Feet is a punishing dance track. But the music is so uplifting, 
> if you actually survive it, you can't help but feel exhilerated by the 
> end. I have a great enthusiasm for this thing, and I know for a fact 
> that I'm not alone.
> 
> Anyway, near the end of the night, I asked for Tiger Feet to be played. 
> Debbie looked at me like I was crazy, but agreed to play it anyway. So, 
> at twenty to midnight, the strains of Mud were heard over the PA system.
> 
> I rushed out onto the dance floor, and in a fit of over-excited 
> exuberance, I executed this huge knee-slide across the dance floor. 
> Debbie loved it so much that she actually stopped the music and made me 
> do it again so everybody could watch. (The first time nobody was really 
> paying attention.)
> 
> I like to believe that the cheer that went up when I did it was 
> admiration. ;-)
> 
> And then, of course, I (plus a few other brave / stupid souls) just had 
> to remain upright for 4 minutes. It was the last dance I danced that 
> night, and damn, I gave it everything! My sides hurt by the time I 
> finished, but hell, what a dance...
> 
> When you consider that I'm usually afraid of my own shaddow, and I run a 
> mile if somebody in the street so much as looks at me the wrong way, 
> doing crazy knee slides on an empty floor in front of 80 people, or 
> dancing right at the very front of the floor where everybody can see me 
> is pretty out of character. But hey, you gotta live a little, right? :-D
nice story congrats!

Post a reply to this message

>> When you consider that I'm usually afraid of my own shaddow, and I run 
>> a mile if somebody in the street so much as looks at me the wrong way, 
>> doing crazy knee slides on an empty floor in front of 80 people, or 
>> dancing right at the very front of the floor where everybody can see 
>> me is pretty out of character. But hey, you gotta live a little, 
>> right? :-D
> nice story congrats!

Thanks! I liked it too... ;-)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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