Clubbing

I am on a kick to try things I have never tried and live life to the fullest (carpe diem and the like). One of the more recent installments of this mind-set included clubbing. I have never really been clubbing before. I sort of went to a club in Edinburgh a few summers ago when I backpacked across the UK, but it was more of a karaoke bar with dancing so I feel it doesn't count much. I wanted the real deal.

Last summer at the library we had a line dancing program where a lady came in and taught the participants a few moves. Some co-workers and I had a blast line dancing and felt we needed more (that alone shocked the crap out of me because who thinks they will enjoy line dancing?). We looked around for a fun dance place that offered line dancing and found Club Rodeo.

Club Rodeo is the greatest thing ever! Half the place is a dance floor and the other half is a dirt pen where cowboys (and cowboy wannabes) ride bulls. That's right, we came in and danced for about an hour or so and then waltz over to watch about 6 guys ride their bulls. Everyone was thrown pretty cleanly except for one guy. He got his arm stuck in the harness and was thrown like a rag doll. The "clown" came in to distract the bull, but he was one nasty beast. He ran the "clown" down and headbutted him to the ground and then kicked and stomped on him a few times. It turned my stomach. He lay on the ground for a long time with medics seeing to him. Then they were able to walk him off. About 3 minutes into the whole exchange the club made a tactless but genius move, they played Cotton Eyed Joe. All the concerned clubbers were at once drawn away from the carnage to go dance one of the most beloved Western Club songs ever. We abstained out of shear horror at what had happened. However, once he walked away and nothing seemed to be broken we went back to dancing as well.

One thing we noticed about the place is that there is more to Western dancing than line dancing, there is the two step! It sounds boring but that is a false impression. The guys there are master twirlers. They take a cowgirl and start spinning and twirling her ever which way. We immediately wanted in on that action. However, we felt insecure about asking guys to dance with us. It was two parts: we were all in relationships and we didn't want to be rejected. So, we passed a table that had three older guys at it. They were all friends, all laughing and all about 60. They were perfect. We asked them if they would like to teach us how to do that most magical kind of dancing and they were thrilled with the opportunity.

After a few tutorials, they took us out on the floor and rotated us between themselves through a few songs. All were nice, but one could really teach and we all became master twirlers (mostly because girls just have to be ready to hold onto the right hand and go the right direction, everything else is up to the guy).

After our lessons we were all asked to dance throughout the night and twirled, stomped and skipped to our hearts content. I am officially a believer in Western themed clubs!