I’m sure many of you don’t know very well, but if we ever get the chance to know each other, you find out that I am a country girl, who happens to enjoy English. I know that I shouldn’t be acceptable to stereotypes, but there is no avoiding being pinned with the country girl title for me. That’s me, I live to ride and take care of my horses, I love rodeos, and western films. One of the highlights of my life is going western line dancing on the weekends. I know it’s not the “typical” college weekend lifestyle, but again, it’s me.
So, with knowing a little more about what my life is like, I wonder if you can imagine the look on my face when my roommate, from the big city of Atlanta, asked me to go with her to swing dancing at 356 in downtown Clemson. Now, I love to dance, I actually took many, many dance classes when I was growing up, a whole sixteen years worth actually, but never had I even attempted such a thing as swing dancing. My first thought was, “Sure! This sounds like it could be fun!” then my second thought was, “who the heck am I going to trust to swing me in the air?!?!” My idea of swing dancing was what I had seen in the movies and on Dancing with the Stars.
Well, the time finally came and we were off to downtown to go swing dancing. I was really excited and nervous at the same time. As we are walking up to 356, I can hear the music coming from the door. It was what one would think as far as swing music, I guess you would call it Big Band. It wasn’t too bad, but you have to remember I am used to listening to country music, so it took some getting used to at first. The first thing I saw when I walked in were lots of couples on the floor swinging each other around. Immediately, I rethought my decision to come, who was I going to dance with, not to mention I had no idea what I was doing. Monica was seemed right at home there, we walked in and stood to the side, and it was maybe five minutes before a guy asked her to dance. I watched, all smiles, at how well they danced together. It seemed to just flow. I asked her after if she knew him, and she said that it was the first time they ever met. I was floored, and even more nervous. It seemed to happen so fast, I turned my head and there was this guy standing in front of me, looking at me like I was supposed to read his mind. So naturally, I just smiled and stared back; talk about an awkward two seconds. Finally, he smiled and asked me if I would like to dance. I immediately turned to Monica and said, talking to him, “I don’t know what to do.” Monica was all smiles as she pushed me out on the floor, and he was really nice and took my hand and taught me the basic steps.
Thankfully my dance experience kicked in, and I was able to pick up on it pretty quick, nothing fancy though, just the basics. After that, the night was so much fun! We danced all night, with different people and to different songs. The whole car ride back to our apartment I talked about how I can’t believe I want to go back. So there you have it, a country girl stepping into a new environment and loving it! I recommend swing dancing at 356 on Monday nights to everyone!
I have never been swing dancing before, but this does sound pretty exciting! Pretty interesting culture topic, too. I sometimes forget how much culture America has alone.
