Call Me 'Rizzo of the Red Hat Ladies'

As most of you know, I take tap lessons once-a-week through the City; I just do it for fun and for a little exercise, it's nothing competitive! I've been taking the same class for a few years now and though the peripheral students change from year to year, the core group of us stays the same. We all chit chat and get along really well and it's kind of fun to be in a class where people know and like me (instead of being a wallflower, like I usually am. Yes, I am actually shy in front of strangers, people!!).

The highest level offered through the CoF is 'Intermediate Adult,' so that is what I've taken every time. The City offers two or three separate classes for, ahem, more senior ladies but for some reason most of them feel compelled to take the IA class in addition to whatever senior class(es) they take. I'm not joking when I say that 85% of them are in the Red Hat Society (or something like it) together and practice at each others' houses or at Lake Elizabeth. Anyway, there are about 22 people in the class and I am definitely the youngest. There is one other woman in her late 20s/early 30s, 2 ladies in their mid-30s, 7 or 8 women in their 40s and the remainder are 55+. Oh, and there's Spazzy Man but he's in his 40s, at least (Spazzy Man is a gentleman who is very determined to be a dancer - so much so that he actually brings a tape recorder to class and speaks into as he does the steps [which is really discombobulating to those of us to dance beside him!] - but who just stinks. His movements are extremely jerky and, well, spazzy. Voila - Spazzy Man is born!). Unfortunately, the class has to cater to the lowest common denominator, as it were, so our steps are not terribly difficult... or physically taxing. :o) Don't get me wrong - our steps are not ridiculously doofy or anything; they're just not as hard as they could be at all times.

Robert keeps trying to get me to sign up for a more challenging class and I've definitely put some thought into that. But, I'm very comfortable with the people in my class, I like my instructor and I don't like change... Even if I were to take a harder class, I'd still keep this one. The thought of finding a studio and finding a class and meeting new people just, ugh, sounds like a bummer so I haven't done anything about a new class yet. Plus, I like being the best one in the class!! I always know what I'm doing in this class and I think that increases my enjoyment immensely. :o) I like being the big fish in the little pond...

Which brings me to the point of this posting: I got to lead the class for a bit yesterday! Sort of. My instructor tore her calf muscle a few weeks back and has been on crutches. As such, she has, of course, been unable to instruct as she normally would. Since our recital is at the end of next month, she's desperately trying to put the final polish on our routines and her not being able to demonstrate the steps herself has really irritated her the past few weeks. There are a handful of us in the class that not only have the routines memorized but do the steps properly and on the beat (imagine!) and whereas previous instructors almost always had us in the front line, Tracy (my current teacher) tries to balance things out a bit. (I am in the front row of one dance and in the 2nd of three lines in the second dance). Now, I've had others in the class come up to me and tell me that they follow me because I know what I'm doing and I feel like I have a good sense of who the best tappers are in the class but, you know, I never really know how closely Tracy pays attention to each of us individually. I guess she pays more attention than I thought she did because toward the end of class last night, with about 15 minutes remaining, I was called out by Tracy to come up to the front of the class and show everyone a particular sequence of steps because she's "been watching [me] and [I] know it very well." :o) Hee!! Yay for me! It's sad, I know, but I was excited. Hey, it's always nice to know that, while you might think you're pretty okay yourself, others sometimes agree!!!

Tracy thanked me for helping her out and I told her I was happy to do it. I even had some people consult me after class for a little impromptu tutorial. Now, I'm not trying to say that I'm the best tapper in the universe - far from it!! Good grief; I'm well aware that my lofty status is all relative to the others with whom I dance. Still, I felt skilled. And special. Me likey.

Oh, you may be wondering where the whole "Rizzo" reference came from... well, here's a photo of a part of one of our costumes:

That's right, people - I'm a Pink Lady. (And not just your average Pink Lady - a Bedazzled Pink Lady. You should see the front of the jacket... at least 15 hot glue-gunned crystals adorn the front of the jacket.) Oy. I will be wearing the jacket with a sparkly neck tie and rhinestone-adorned cat eye glasses and dancing to "Hound Dog." The 2nd dance is to "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from Spamalot and we will be wearing gold-sequined tops with yellow feather tiaras. I kid you not. I didn't have to wear tiaras even when I danced as a kid!!! We are going to look like geriatric Big Birds, man. *sigh* And that, of course, is the dance where I am in the front line so you can really soak me up in all my banana-colored, eye-searingly sparkly glory. Wooha!! Neil Diamond's got nothin' on us ladies, I'll tell you that.

Just in case my embarrassment is not complete, I thought I'd finish it off by uploading last year's routine. I'm the one whose hat falls off about 2 seconds in. :o( [I'm in the front row, 2nd from the left for those of you who are hard of seeing...] I was (and still am) mortified!! I have NEVER lost ANYTHING in all my years of dancing - not a shoe lace, not a feather, not a strap, not a cane, nothing. I had the freakin' thing pinned to my head and there was a chin strap, so how the hell did it fall off my head?! I know my head is like an orange on a toothpick and the hat was a child's size but still... it had two methods with which to keep it in place!! Gah! If I have to glue the damn Big Bird tiara to my head to make it stay in place, I will!

(The audio is just ever so slightly behind the video, so we don't match up with the beat quite right... I've tried uploading it several times in different formats and this is the best I could do. I'm still working on it, but until I get a better version up here, watch this with the understanding that it's a bit off!)