so, you think you can dance?

i thought i could...that is, until january 11th.

i have always loved dancing. if there's a good band playing, 9 times out of 10 you'll find me on the dance floor.

when i was 4, my parents enrolled me in tap & ballet classes. i remember doing plies and dancing all the time with my two best friends, sara & beth.

yes, that's me when i was 4...i'm second to the right rockin out!

i took classes for a few years and then put up my dancing shoes and moved on to piano lessons.

a few weeks ago, my friend, emily, mentioned that she was taking a hip hop dance class and invited me to come along.

perfect, i thought. this can be my "something new" for january.

done.

i had never taken a hip hop class, but somehow it didn't seem to bother me. how hard can this be?

that monday night, i met emily at birmingham dance theatre (bdt). as we walked through the door to our classroom, i noticed about 20 13-16 year old girls. apparently, their class was cancelled and they would be joining our class that night. glancing around the room, i noticed that i was not dressed for the occasion. i didn't have on a pair of neon nikes...yeah, apparently those are cool. and who forgot to tell me wearing a baseball cap sideways was back in? (think back to will smith in fresh prince)

at some point before we started learning our routine, i leaned over and asked emily what the official name of this class was. all i heard come out of her mouth was the word "advanced". i think i tuned out the rest.

i'm sorry, could you repeat that one more time?

for the next hour, we learned our hip hop routine to "evacuate the dancefloor". actually, everyone else in the classroom learned the routine...i just learned the 1st move. :)

any bit of pride i may have had about dancing was completely stripped away that night. gone.

at the end of the class they paired us off into groups and each group had to perform for each other. awesome. my goal was to stay near the back, hoping that i would never, EVER see these people again.

regardless of it all, it was fun to try something new and it was great exercise trying to keep up with a bunch of high school kids.

as for next month, tickets have been booked, my name has been cleared (hopefully), and i'm counting down the days until i get to check off my february to-do. get ready, it's gonna be good!

love,

alison