Dancing
“There’s no class.”
I stared at the woman, fully decked out in hot pink and neon green. ”Huh?”
“There’s no zumba tonight.” She crinkled her nose, her lips curled like she bit into a lemon. ”Some kind of ab class.”
My shoulders sank. ”Are you serious?”
She nodded, reaching out her hand to a woman walking by. ”Hey! There’s no class!”
“No class?” The woman gasped. ”But…but there’s always class on Wednesday.”
“Tonight they’re doing something new. Ab class.” The woman wrinkled her nose again.
“I don’t need to do sit ups, I can do sit ups at home,” the second woman fumed. ”I need to dance!”
“There’s no class?” We turned towards a skinny young woman. Purple shadows ringed her eyes and dabs of white and yellow streaked across her stained shirt. ”You can’t be serious.”
“We’re serious.” The first woman relished her role as the bearer of bad news.
“But I have to dance!” The new mother’s eyes filled with tears. ”I can’t go back now–I can’t go back to dishes and diapers. I need to dance!”
“I can’t go back to the office,” the second woman groused, raising her heels in her hand.
“I work the graveyard shift. I’ve got to move.” The third woman shook her hips to demonstrate.
I pulled open my car door and turned the ignition key, rolling the windows down. ”So let’s dance.” Popping in a CD, I cranked up the dial as music filled the air.
“Here?” the first woman squeaked.
“Now?” The second woman glanced around.
“In the parking lot?” The third woman gasped. ”But people can see us!”
The new mother’s face lit up. ”Who cares?” she cried, wiggling her hips. ”Let’s dance!”
I joined her, shaking and shimmying and twirling across the asphalt. The other woman slowly joined in, stiffly swaying. A few songs later, they were tangoing across the parking spaces and doing hip hop in the alley. The new mom looked at me and grinned. ”You know what I love about dancing?”
“Losing baby weight?” I guessed.
“The way it makes me feel.” She beamed. ”Free and beautiful.”
“And that’s a whole lot cheaper than the high cost of liposuction!” another woman chimed in, laughing.
“And a lot more fun!” the second woman crowed.
“This is almost better than class!” the first woman cheered.
“And we didn’t have to pay for it,” the third woman cackled. As people drove past, grabbing dinner and dry-cleaning and groceries, we twirled and leaped and popped and locked.
For sometimes, you just have to dance.
Stay tuned, Invisible Friends! A new woman of the Pond mañana!
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May 14th, 2012 at 5:04 am
cool – maybe you should just start your own class – lol
May 14th, 2012 at 5:25 am
You are AWESOME!!!!! That is so cool, I love to dance too and dancing in a parking lot is downright genius.
May 14th, 2012 at 5:51 am
So whimsical and fun!
May 14th, 2012 at 6:16 am
Its the music that makes all the difference. I’m with Sue in that you should start your own class.
May 14th, 2012 at 7:32 am
What a great idea! Such fun.
May 14th, 2012 at 7:57 am
Absolutely wonderful!! Love everything about this moment that you shared… you rock!!
make it a great day
May 14th, 2012 at 7:59 am
If my Zumba class got cancelled there would probably be a small riot. We do LOVE to dance.
May 14th, 2012 at 8:26 am
I still have to get into a Zumba class, but I did research on it and it was so wonderful. I need to get into one desperately.
May 14th, 2012 at 10:24 am
You are super cool! What fun to just dance!
May 14th, 2012 at 11:27 am
It is always better when you don’t have to pay for it!
May 14th, 2012 at 12:58 pm
For certain! Dancing is the answer to a lot of our problems!
May 14th, 2012 at 5:31 pm
I’ve been pretty darn mad when one of my classes was canceled too. However, I was alone, so figured they’d cart me away if I danced by myself:)
May 14th, 2012 at 7:02 pm
What fun! I wish I had the guts to flail about in a parking lot (seriously, it’s more flailing and less dancing!)
May 14th, 2012 at 7:07 pm
How fun. It is good to dance, no mater where you are at.
May 14th, 2012 at 7:32 pm
What fun. Zumba is pretty awesome from what I’ve heard.
May 14th, 2012 at 7:37 pm
Music & dancing: a bright sunbeam!
May 14th, 2012 at 8:17 pm
I agree! SUper cute and fun! You go girl!
May 14th, 2012 at 9:08 pm
Love that line — “free and beautiful”!
May 14th, 2012 at 9:44 pm
Woo hoo! Amen, sister!
xoxox,
CC
May 14th, 2012 at 10:07 pm
Hi Duckie, how do you think up so many ideas for stories?
You always come up with something interesting!
May 14th, 2012 at 11:01 pm
I so would have joined you guys, I am a Zumba freak! Love it and how spontaneous you guys were. What fun.
May 15th, 2012 at 1:29 am
Wonderful…Happy Tuesday doll!! I agree with everyone, you should start a class
If I lived closer, I would join 
)) xxx
May 15th, 2012 at 5:29 am
This is fantastic. I would love to see something like that!
May 15th, 2012 at 5:34 am
Love the spontaneity and the connection of community with the women you danced with … free, open and boundless. Lovely!
May 15th, 2012 at 8:11 pm
I have found that grilling burgers w/o curling my hair is hard work, but I get’cha.
May 16th, 2012 at 3:25 am
So fun! Now I’ve got Dixie Chicks “Some Days You Gotta Dance” playing in my head!
May 16th, 2012 at 4:26 am
that is so cool! + i so agree with Ginny above – ‘Some Days You’ve Gotta Dance’ would be the perfect song to go along with this post. =)