I hope YOU dance

Ever since I can remember, I've LOVED to dance. I walk around with a beat in my head and bust out in moves unnannounced. I was on the drill team in both jr. high and high school, and got to wear crazy costumes as I moved in sync with 60 other girls. First I was a Rebelette in Louisiana, then a Bearkadette in Texas. (My friend Wendy and I in high school)

a few costumes...A few more...

Although I loved this "team sport" I liked the free style a bit better. Our church would have monthly youth dances where a bunch of my friends would get together to get all gussied up in hopes that our dream guy would push his way through the crowd to ask us to dance the night away with him. I can't remember that ever happening. Of course I loved the boys at these dances, but they only swayed back and forth and in a circle to the slow songs, and at the fast songs, they bolted to the bathroom, or back to their designated chairs lining the walls. I usually had a few friends that would "shake it" with me to the fast songs, but most often a lot of girls even went to line the walls as well. This left a wide open dance floor. Now I didn't necessarily think it was fun to dance all by myself with everyone staring at me. I preferred at least a few friends to join me in the center of the room to dance crazy, free style. But I didn't always get that. I'm not completely self assured enough to do it alone.

My high school friend Nicole was also on the drill team at her high school, but I couldn't seem to get her to show up at the dances. But when we went off to college at BYU, we found a way to dance. We went to Club Omni once, but it wasn't a very crowded night and it seemed anti climactic. Here we are dancing in the street after. We then had a weekend away to South Padre Island in the summer of my 19th year with a few friends, and Nicole and I wore our "clubbing shirts" i.e. something sparkly. We had a lot of fun dancing the night away, not caring what everyone else was doing around us, having fun doing our thing. (A blurry picture of a picture)
Then, the summer I turned 21, I drove with my brother Ryan, his wife Alayna, and my cousin Mike from Houston to Austin. Alayna also LOVES to dance. Quite possibly more than I do. She really "got jiggy with it" at her wedding reception, which I loved and admired in a girl who had just married my older brother. (I am dancing just behind Alayna, the bride)Anyway, when we took our trip, we knew we had to find a club on 6th street and dance. Ryan and Mike stood on the wall in this club and watched us dance. Once again, it wasn't very crowded, and I just wished there were more people out on the dance floor. We did get up on a platform though and had some good laughs and the boys got pretty embarresed, we loved that.

At any wedding reception I get the chance, if I have a few friends to join me, I like to dance. Unfortunately, my husband isn't one to enjoy such an activity. He will slow dance with me, but I've learned...he really doesn't like it when I try to get him to fast dance with me. Here is me at my 2nd wedding reception in California. Michael's sisters Julie (back of her head) Karen, and my sil Alayna with the funky arm move. I've been to a few gatherings since I've been here in Austin where I've located friends who also enjoy dancing. One friend has had a few New Years Eve parties where they clear out the furniture and play dance music for the night. Fun, but only a few join in which leaves everyone else in attendance eating food and watching those few on the dance floor. I feel a bit inhibited realizing this. At another party held by my Mexican friend, it was so great to see everyone dancing out on the floor of the living room. However, it was spanish music and I wished it was music I knew, could sing along to (this is also a requirement to thoroughly enjoy my dancing, music I can sing with).

In talking to my friend Jackie, she told me when her family comes into town that she goes dancing with them. I got so excited and asked her to tell me the next time she went because I wanted to go. Then I realized my sister in law Alayna was coming into town and I thought it would be fun to take my sister in laws out to dance. When I just mentioned the possibility to Alayna over the phone, I almost could have heard the shriek all the way from Puerto Rico. Needless to say, she was VERY excited at the idea. My other 2 sis in laws were also on board, we just had to hammer out a few details. Jackie tried to help me locate a place closer to where we had our reunion, but didn't come up with much. Then we thought about going to 6th street downtown, but ended up driving up almost to Round Rock to go to a dance spot in the suburbs. I thought it'd be a bit safer than roaming downtown with a street full of crazies at late hours. Jackie then expressed interest in coming and said she was going to ask around to see if others wanted to join in.

You see, I am a Mormon, which is known to the world as being a conservative people. But...clubbing doesn't seem to fit into that ultra conservative Mormon description. It is...maybe out of the "norm." I knew this dancing thing might not be recieved well amongst our Mormon friends, and well....lets just say I was right. Not that anyone see's dancing in and of itself as bad, but the idea that we are going sans husbands to a smoke filled club with loud music and drinking. Jackie didn't seem to quite realize we'd get such an odd reception. When she brought it up to a few friends in my presence, here are the responses we got:

"What, without your husbands?"

"Will you still wear your wedding ring!?"

"Do you dance with other guys?!"

I mean please--these people KNOW me, what are they thinking??? I'll admit, the responses annoyed me. We did have a friend back out because she didn't feel comfortable and I get that. I don't fault the comfort level of someone doing something they don't feel good about, I just want don't want people to fault me for doing something that I do feel good about. Hence my epiphany in the previous post. I get it, I understand that not everyone can seperate the environment from the dancing, but I can. I'm also grateful that I have a husband that supports this love of mine and trusts me unconditionally. (He took these pictures of me getting ready)

Anyway, Jackie mentioned it to a few more people that were very excited about a girls night out dancing. My sister in laws and I got ready at the family cabin and had a fun drive up north. We were so excited, we took some fun pictures of ourselves in the parking lot.

Kristen, Kim, Rachel, Alayna

We got to the club at 9pm and it wasn't too crowded yet. Fortunately, it was ladies night, so we didn't have to pay a dime (hooray)! I worried that with a Wednesday night, we wouldn't get the crowd I hoped for. Alayna and I once again made it up to the platform for a bit (not the best angle, sorry Alayners). We had some techno music without words and it was okay, but at around 10pm they started playing MY music! The stuff I loved! I could sing AND dance. 4 local friends joined up with us then and the room started to fill up. By 11pm the place was hopping and we were having so much fun. The 8 of us formed our own little mini circle and just did our own thing, surrounded by the crowd around us. I even managed to get myself unlimited free orange juice for the night. I declared myself the designated driver (among my other non drinking friends) and I got a special wristband for free juice. How cool is that?
Alayna, Kim, Rachel, Kristen, Jessica, Jackie, Claudia, Yessy

(I wish I had a picture of all of us dancing)

So the dancing was everything that I hoped it would be...and more! I especially loved it when the strobe lights came on and made everyones dancing look like slow motion. Kimmie and Rachel really had it in them (I was so proud--never seen them dance before) and Kim even started a cool move that we all caught onto. Jackie, Jessica, and Alayna were hard core with me. Sweating it out to (literally) the end. It was fun to see my friends moves:) Then, just before 1am I got to do something I had always dreamed of....I sang Kareoke. Even though I couldn't quite get the tempo at the beginning of the song, I rocked the chorus!

We parted ways with my local friends and I was wide awake as the driver of the 4 chica's back to the cabin in the woods. After a run to McDonald's for the dinner Rachel never had, Alayna kept me awake the whole time with conversation until we reached our sleeping fam at around 3am.


The next day, my neck was a bit stiff because I threw my hair around so much. A week later, I'm still on a high with having so much fun doing something I love.