Dancing with the Local Stars

Well, the local University Ballroom Dance Club had their yearly show tonight and I got to do my routine. It was billed as our version of Dancing with the Stars although the stars were certainly not as stellar as the ones that twinkle on the network television show!


It felt a little like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland getting together to put on a show and we can use my dad's shed for the stage, (at least in terms of my contribution), but the students did a fantastic job, both of teaching us old fogies a few new licks as well as performing intricate numbers themselves.


One of the sisters shows off her waltzing talents below.


In between the "stars" numbers the dance club performed some really nice numbers.


This team was one of the best, showing off a number that had earned them a score of 97 out of 100 at a recent Twin Cities competition.


That is my partner Michael dancing with his sister Anna. They were absolutely fabulous together and had the greatest characters for their routine. She was reluctant and he persisted and won her over for a dance.


This couple (below) had a very cute story to their number about a poor street musician dancing with a woman that puts money in his hat. The nattily dressed man transformed from a dirty busker to a "swell dude" right before our eyes.

This was a very hot number, that combined Tango with other moves.

Our fox trot went okay. I flubbed a few of my steps, but I didn't fall on my behind and my partner was very kind and encouraging, so I am relieved. We did our routine to "Puttin' on the Ritz. My partner was very ambitious and invented a rigorous choreography that involved hesitations, promenades, turns, fans and even a dip, so I felt pretty good about our performance afterwards (given the complexity of the dance.) Of course I didn't take a picture of us dancing, but here I am in the living room after the event - a little bleary (and worse for wear?) but at least you can see the costume. Yeah, those are my far away eyes!!