My First Ever Social Dance

By Mary McCreary

December 7th marked the first time I had ever tried dancing with strangers. My friend dragged me to the University of Minnesota Ballroom Dance Club’s fall formal, their masquerade.

Now, I did well enough in my ballroom classes. I go to Carleton College, and I took their social dance classes to fulfill my PE credits. I really enjoyed the classes, so much that I convinced the rest of my dorm floor to take the class with me the next term. We all knew we were absolutely horrible at dancing, but we had fun stepping on each others’ toes and being silly to jazzy foxtrot music.

Going into the masquerade, however, I started to get nervous. I knew the waltz box step, and I could do some butterflies, and I knew tango was not my forte. That was about all I could remember. I did my best to hide behind my friend the whole time, but a few leads succeeded in finding me and asking me to dance. Despite my warnings that I was a beginner, they all danced with me, I stepped on them, and they thanked me for the dance. U of M, you have the nicest leads ever.

Driving back home, I realized that while I wasn’t interested in being super into ballroom like my friend, I was still interested in continuing to learn how to dance and maybe going out to dance every once in a while. It’s not my highest priority, but I can honestly say that I really, really had a lot of fun with my friend that night, and I won’t forget it anytime soon.