Dancin' In The Aisles

I LOVE to dance.  Seriously!  Anyone who's ever seen me at a wedding reception, party or the like becomes fully aware just how much I love it.  In my four years of high school, I'm quite certain that the number of school dances I missed were no more than the fingers on one hand.  I kid you not.  I took two semesters of ballet and two of jazz while in college (fulfilling PE requirements and assuaging childhood dancer fantasies) and a handful of ballet classes, as a child.  That's the extent of my training, so there are no lofty dreams of Broadway or Dancing With The Stars and that's okay because I am just as content to boogie around the kitchen when something good comes on the radio.  A couple of years ago, Mr. Snark and the Younglings gave me a kitchen radio for my birthday...one of those contraptions that mounts under the kitchen cabinets.  Hmmm, for the first week the radio was installed, dinner was consistently late as the chef would find herself shimmying instead of sauteing!

And the dancing isn't confined solely to the house, no.  In-store radios will also prompt spontaneous moments of public move bustin'.  At MY Publix grossery (money spent/amount purchased - turn around time = GROSS) store...no, it's not really mine, but I'm there enough that some of the employees know me by name and remind me about regular items that might be missing from my weekly haul...whatever setup they have for their in-store music is AWESOME!  Was recently at the check-out and "You Dropped The Bomb On Me" came on (Appropriate music for settling up, don't you think?).  Feet started twitching, head began to bob, ever so slightly, involuntarily.  What's a girl to do?  Walgreen's had a 60's theme going last night, which, I have to say...is much better than the love ballads that were playing a few weeks ago.  Mama listened to all that stuff growing up and would play her records for us when we were kids and we would dance in the living room.  We were pretty poor, so a big night for us was homemade steak fries with brown gravy and gettin' down in the living room.  It always comes back on the Mama doesn't it...well, this is one time it's not such a bad thing.  Anyway, back to Walgreen's.  So, there I was...trying to match my coupon with the sale ad and I heard one of my all time FAVORITE songs...."Do You Love Me?" 

Now, I know...The Contours had a hit with this LONG before "Dirty Dancing" got a hold of it, but when I hear that song, I remember watching this movie in the theater and then the summer that it came on HBO....EVERY time it came on I watched it and EVERY time I watched it, I was usually in the company of one of my best childhood friends...Stephanie.  Good grief...between the two of us, I think we wore out our cassettes (sigh...just time stamped myself, didn't I?)of the soundtrack.  We had the choreography memorized and while not nearly as polished as (the dearly departed...I did cry when he passed) Mr. Swayze and his cast mates, we DANCED!!!  The opening bars of this song cause a near involuntary response....MUST DANCE!  MUST DANCE!  DANCE=BREATHE!  Evidently, I am not alone in this reaction, as a fellow shopper rounded the corner and walking towards me, I recognized him as a fellow "head dancer."  Good music comes on, in an atmosphere not necessarily appropriate or conducive for properly cutting a rug...you dance in your head. There was just something about the expression on his face that tattled on what was going on in his brain. We locked eyes and for about 3.5 blissful seconds, we danced out loud...and then went about our shopping.  Never saw his face before our brief encounter last night and don't know that I'd remember him if I saw him today...but our 3.5 second dance was a blast!

Here's something you probably didn't know about dancing.  Maybe you did...being the savvy, hip, cosmopolitan bunch that you are.  Dancing can be used as an effective tool in the discipline of children.  Stay with me....there's a story behind this discovery that will prove my point.  The Younglings and I were shoe shopping a few years ago.  As boyos are wont to do, they were playing the "slap and dodge" game...one of those seriously male behaviors that has me SMH (shaking my head).  They wouldn't stop.  And then, over the store's radio speakers comes "Dancin' Queen" by ABBA.

Again, a hit on it's own before "Mama Mia"...either the musical or the movie version.  We heard this one growing, up, too...so it's been a long (and getting longer and longer)time favorite.  The boyos heard the opening piano run and STOPPED.  DEAD.  IN.  THEIR.  TRACKS.  No joke.  They looked at each other and I could hear what passed between them, even though they were silent (FINALLY!).  "Do you think she will?  She does EVERY time she hears it at home.  We're in public...people can see...she wouldn't?  Are you serious...this is OUR mom?"  Realizing that I had to seize this teachable moment (by the horns and hog tie it), I quietly told them that I would be a flash mob of one and dance right there in front of God and a good section of RollingHills, Georgia's population if they continued to be uncooperative and disobedient.  Again, I could hear them silently speaking to each other (Ninja-mama mind reading powers are AWESOME...when they work) and there was a hint of doubt...disbelief...uncertainty.  Being the sort of Mama who always wants her children to know that I am a woman of my word, I proceeded to dance.  Spoon full of sugar, my Aunt Fanny....a little well place public humiliation goes a LLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG way!  I'd never seen either of them so eager and willing and anxious to comply with my instructions. 

And before you pull the "but Baptists don't dance" card on me...I even dance in church.  Well, not in the same fashion as I do at the drugstore or in my kitchen or shopping for shoes, but it's definitely dancing.  Ask anyone who has ever watched me in the choir loft...I am NOT still while the music is playing and there are some songs that have me jumping out of my skin.  We've started contemporary services for our Sunday night worship time and being in the congregation, I feel a little more free to move.  This past week, it was "Beautiful One" that had me doing "the Holy Hustle."

And again, I wasn't the only one.  One of our Praise Ensemble singers, Sister SingsThePaintOffTheWalls, was itching to letitgoooooooooooooo!  She has this particular twitch to her foot when she gets into a moment where she and the music come together and it is an awesome thing to see...I love it!  She and I are dangerous together...we try to make sure we're at opposite ends of the choir loft. 

There's a saying that's pretty popular these days...dance like no one's watching.  You know what I think...who cares if they are?  And if I'm caught on the in-store security tape dancing and become a YouTube sensation, that's okay.  I'd rather go viral for dancing while buying hair gel than to be known for falling into a mall fountain because I was so busy texting!  Dancing is the soul's natural response to emotion and feeling...falling into a fountain because you were engrossed in your text conversation is..well...a result of stupidity.