|
Dance
‘Til You Drop
Here
is a line I never thought I would hear myself
say:
"I
had a blast at the World’s Largest
Office Party!"
I
complained all day long and on the way there,
imagining hell in a hotel ballroom with
drunken office-worker types in khaki. When
we entered, I was amused that the song I
had just been playing in my car, the 80s
classic Come on Eileen by Dexy’s Midnight
Runners was playing. I elbowed my way through
a sea of surprisingly good-looking office-worker
types to the dance floor. And that’s
pretty much where we stayed all night, dancing
to every single hit I can remember from
the 80s to the sounds of the Rusty Griswold’s
– a kick-ass 80’s cover band.
I danced with my girlfriend Sarah, by myself,
with all my new office-worker friends and
finally with Will Benson, who clearly spent
as much time dancing in the clubs in the
80s as I did. We tore up that dance floor.
And life was good.
Just
a few weeks earlier I had been singing the
same sort of praise about another event,
claiming "I had a blast at the Ballet’s
Red Ball!" It’s hard to go to
a black-tie event as a single, but as soon
as I started dancing tura lura lay style
with tura lura lay dance prince/art dealer
Michael Lowe, on loan from his wife Kim
Klosterman, to Come on Eileen (can you believe
it?!), I knew it was going to be a good
night. And when my other new favorite dance
partner, contemporary art curator Thom Collins
stepped up to the plate, we went straight
over the top.
The
night was about over. In fact, Thom and
I were almost to the coat check when we
heard it, Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best
Friend from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack.
We dashed back to the dance floor and began
to carry on, like Satine and Christian,
star-crossed lovers with Bob- Fosse-meets-Baz-Luhrmann
dance moves. All went well until we neglected
to consider the laws of gravity without
proper choreography in some poorly planned
backwards dip. We ended up in a heap on
the floor.
But
we got right back up and dusted ourselves
off as though the finals of the ballroom
dance competition were at stake. And so
we danced, we danced all the way to the
disco end, swirling and turning to Let’s
Dance the Last Dance. As we were leaving
a nice couple commented, "You guys
are really good dancers, except for the
falling part."
Can
you remember ever having a bad time when
dancing was a part of the event? I can’t.
I love weddings and Bar Mitzvahs for the
dancing alone. If 80 year-old Aunt May can
learn the Electric Slide at Jason’s
Bar Mitzvah, then damn it, so can we. If
the guy with the beer belly and the blinking
Santa tie clip wants to do the bump with
you to Rocky Top at the World’s Largest
Office Party, then start swinging those
hips.
There
are an infinite number of ways to fall from
grace in today’s hard world. So get
out there and dance. Dance until you drop.
You might as well take your fall to the
music, then get back up and start dancing
again.
|