tea for two and two for... me

Last night I boarded the express train on a well-frequented subway line with giddyness. I got off at Times Square and while the hoards of theater goers, tourists, and slow moving folks (gah, I am a New Yorker now!) were pretty much as annoying as usual, it was because I couldn't wait to get where I was going. Last night I took my first dance class in over a year! It was like I was clad in my pink tutu all over again.

I arrived and laced up my tap shoes just as the previous class was wrapping up. I was taking Beginning Tap and this was Advanced Beginner. I stood between the vending machine and the bench with other dancers of all shapes and ages wondering who was a newbie like me, whether these tappers had years of experience or whether they were just starting out. As my teacher let her class out I had flashbacks of releasing the gates on throngs of three-year-olds replete with pink parapharnelia in varying degrees of flare and sparkle. I missed teaching in that moment and wondered why I hadn't stuck with it all - the classes, the performances, the instructing. Damn it, why did I get a boring desk job?

My class began and I was wonderfully wrapped up in the warm-up exercise of tapping toes and heels, listened attentively as the assistant instructor explained the difference between a "stamp" and a "stomp" and will admit I felt a bit like a liar (hiding my years of experience) as we practiced single pullbacks. The best part of the class, however, came at the end when my instructor (who I have decided I heart) informed us we were going to do a soft shoe. She taught us a combination full of front essences and all sorts of lovely sounding and feeling things which we then did about 20 times to an instrumental version of Frank Sinatra's "It Had to Be You". Ahhh, total bliss. This was more like it.

I exited back onto the city streets feeling refreshed and dodged in and out of theater goers once again as I made my way to the subway feeling refreshed, both body and soul. Yes, it is cheesy and schmultzy but I'm totally psyched to go back next week. I think I'll try jazz...