Speaking of rumba...

This morning Zirpu and I attended a rumba workshop given by one of the important Arthur Murray dance coaches, who is a former Latin dance champion and a current judge. The workshop was attended by three female students and nine male students (dance teachers rounded out the class so we would be in pairs). She said to me, "So many men always sign up for my workshops. Why is that?" and I replied, "Because you're the sexiest woman in the world."

She laughed. I think she knows that she is.

The dance coach started the class by saying that she was going to teach us to play roles. It's hard to play the role of a super-seductive person if, like I was today, you're wearing pants that are too big, it's eleven in the morning, and you haven't had any vodka. After awhile my imagination filled in the scene: a dark bar, loud music, sexy strangers everywhere, and I looked like Cyd Charisse in "Singin' In The Rain" (oh, how I wish I had legs like hers!). Rumba is the dance of love and in an exhibition or competition, one of the things the judges look for is the relationship between the couple. If the dancers aren't lovers, they have to pretend they are, or wish to be, for the ninety seconds they're on the floor.

The man across the room from me, as it happened, was Zirpu. I think it would have been even more challenging if my dance partner weren't someone I live with, but it was challenging enough. What am I doing with my arms? My hips? I'm showing off my body and I have to keep constant eye contact as well? Keeping eye contact makes me uncomfortable because it doesn't come naturally: I think we are conditioned to interpret eye contact as a challenge or provocation. On top of that, I'm thinking about my feet, my arms, and my hips!

Eye contact, I think, is the most important piece in the story of the dance. If I'm not looking at my partner, no one is going to believe that we want to jump in the sack when the dance is over. When I talk to people about ballroom dance, they think of the waltz, foxtrot, and tango, in which the partners look over each other's right shoulders. But there is so much more to ballroom than elegance and formality... There's passion and seduction too!