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Why doesn’t anyone dance properly any more?

Dec 11, 2015

I was at my grandson’s school concert the other day, it was a very noisy tribute to the late Michael Jackson in which all the years performed dance routines to the popular songs.

Of course it was 100 per cent cute and my grandson was the very BEST zombie that ever danced to Thriller, but what really stood out for me was the Grade Four class, which danced to Billy Jean.

The thing is, the Grade Four teacher also happens to be a dance instructor and he had taught his class a very basic box step. Considering the prevalence of boy-germs and girl-germs among that age groups, there were a few kids who managed to dance awkwardly without ever actually touching.

But for the most part, the children were happy to hold hands and most seemed to be enjoying themselves. Some of the more coordinated pairings had progressed to cha-cha-cha and basic jive moves and the audience was in raptures at these little people moving so gracefully.

Of all the performances, this one had the Grandmas and Granddads on their feet, whooping it up as if we were at a rock concert!

I remember dancing with Toby Jackson at a school dance at a similar age. I had the most enormous crush on Toby Jackson, who was perfect in every way except one – he was a terrible dancer. With a broken heart and crushed toes, my love’s first light ebbed away.

But then his brother, Brian asked me to dance. Brian was a year older and gifted on the dance floor. I remember feeling like a movie star! In my memories, we twirled and danced like Fred and Ginger; even though the practical part of my brain knows we were simply box stepping our way around the other dancers in the hall.

I didn’t end up marrying Brian, even though at the time I was sure we should. But my husband and I did dance when we were younger; mostly rockabilly, a little bit of lindy hop and, of course, the good old box step. Seeing those children made me miss the partner dances of days gone by. Do you?