Dancing with a partner is very gender specific.  I haven't done it in years.  There's a square dance club in town, and that sounded like fun to me.  Last night was the first basic lesson.  I had absolutely no idea what to expect.  Would I be the youngest woman there?  Would I have to sit out much of the time because there were too many women?  Would I goof up and do the moves of the men?  Would I be read as something other than a woman?  What sort of people would be there?  What should I wear?  I screwed up my courage and went.  I figured that I could always leave if it was horrible.

It turned out that there were enough for four squares (16 couples) plus a few extras.  Experienced dancers came to fill in, so everyone got a partner and all the new people could dance.  Ages ranged from college age to 80s (probably).  I recognized no one – unusual in a town this size – but that also meant no one recognized me.  I'm five-foot-nine, and several other women were my height or taller.

I chatted with several women while waiting to begin.  When we started forming up, I said to the woman I was sitting next to: "How do we do this?  Do we present ourselves?"  She said: "They're supposed to ask us."  How did she know that if she had never been there before?  (A woman thing, I guess.)

A man of about 80 with a large hearing aid asked me to dance.  He was tall and slim, a good dancer, and surprisingly strong for his age.  He was wonderful, even though I had to tell him to call me Katherine because he just couldn't understand when I said Kate three times.  I danced all three sets with him.

It took a little while for me to get into the rhythm of it, but soon I was bouncing and stepping and giving a little whirl.  I had no trouble being the woman although some of the moves were a little odd to me, having played the man for so many years.  It was wonderful to have a man's hand on my waist and have him lead me around.  It was really nice to be handed off to the other men of the square.  Square dancing is pretty egalitarian, with the women doing a lot on their own, but we also get held.  Nice.

I can't wait until next week.  Perhaps I'll wear a full skirt instead of jeans, so that it will billow out when I swing.  If there's a place near you that has American Square Dancing (it's world-wide), give it a try.

- Kate

I've always loved to dance. In fact my blog is named accordingly "Dancing Backwards, It's what women do". Of course that's when we're waltzing.  It took awhile to get my hands in the right place, as a woman is held and led by the man, actually it was quite funny at times, not what I had been used to doing in my passed life, if you know what I mean

Now all I have to do is get my guy off his butt more often. It seems that guys need a couple of beers inside them before they take to the dance floor.  It's always been a great experience, a good way to meet new people although my poor toes would often tell me to run when one of the not so skilled asked me to dance

Yep it's a great way to spend the evening and as you are learning to Square Dance I'm hoping to learn how to Jive.

Dossie Doe y'all

Steph

You go girlllllllllllll, great to hear.


Stardust

Yaaaaaay Kate!!! 

I love dancing... although I'm not very good at the formal dancing stuff 

I doubt I could pull off some of the dance moves I did when I was younger, but get me out to a club and can still manage a decent rock 'n roll wiggle 

EeeeeK! Dancing.

When I was at school I did ballet and ballroom because that was what the girls did. I was never any good sadly.

Even today I am totally left right blind. Being ambidextrous I always have to ask someone which is which and five minutes later I can't recall what they said so then I have to ask again. Its useless telling me left kick turn shuffle or something because 50% of the time I will right kick and turn the wrong way or simply freeze in confusion. I also seem to lack the ability to memorise a sequence of steps. The result is that on the dancefloor I am simply dangerous.

Also being with Alison I know I'd get stuck with being the boy but one day perhaps... 

Loved the post Kate

I am SO bad at dancing. When I was pretending I was always the little 'guy' stuck to the wall. I still have no idea of rhythm, coordination in dancing is terrible (I had a 1st Dan Karate belt I still didn't have coordination in dancing ). 

Not too sure if it will be my scene but Sis, great on you for going out and doing stuff. Next thing we hear is when you try out for the Cheer leader places  , and get there

Cindy

I tried ballroom dancing once.
I like being the askee instead of the asker.
I got the left hand figured out, but it's still strange that my elbow goes on the outside.
Still, for somebody with a decent sense of guitar rhythm I find that it has not propagated to my feet.

omg I've always loooooved dancing! The right music and I just get happy feet lol My favorite classic dance is the waltz, but anytime I can move to the music I'm a happy girl. Go Kate! 

Just an update.  I live in an area that includes ranching as one of the main industries.  It is obvious that some of the men at the dances have done ranch work at least part of their lives.  Some have very rough and very large hands.  I like it.   (Who knew?)

Last night was the third lesson.  I've been doing all right, but last night we learned how the men spin their gals, with a twirl at the end.  I had such a hard time with it, not remembering where to put my hands.  The position just didn't come naturally to me.  I did better with the men who were strong leads.  (In square dancing you dance with all four men in the square.)

I came home and cried.  After all my socialization to be the strong one, being swung and twirled by a partner is both wonderful and scary.  When a man tries to pull me around my first reaction – born of long years of experience – is to resist. 

Besides being fun, this dancing is a good experience for me. It is getting me out of my comfort zone and seems to be another level in becoming the woman I always wanted to be.  Now if I can just learn to trust the experience and strength and big, rough hands of my partners, I'll do OK.

- Kate