shake it fast!

I've loved dancing for as long as I can remember. I remember when my parents gave me a leotard and tights for Christmas along with my first ever ballet class at the Cleveland School of Dance. Before that, my sister, cousins, friends and I would "choreograph" (read: talk about) dances and shows and perform them on the "stage" (read: bench) in nanny and papa's basement. Thinking back on it now I feel like I was probably always the one that instigated this and dragged others with me. We played "Burnin' Down the House," and "Mousercize" records on their record player and thought we were so freaking cool.

I remember my awesome outfit for the jazz routine in my first recital. There's still a picture of it floating around somewhere. Hot pink. Rainbow Sequins. Silver shoes. Sequin Headband. Hawt.

I remember playing my dad's Cathy Dennis "Move to This" CD over and over again in the living room to practice my moves.

I can still remember so many dances from all my years of classes and cheerleading... to Big Band, Rusted Root, 2 guys banging on pots, pans, and tables (seriously), rainforest sounds, Coolio, U2, REO Speedwagon, the Beastie Boys. Wearing bleach-stained unitards, chevron pants, ballet skirts that my mom sewed for me, anything that my (eccentric) dance teacher could find in bulk at the thrift store.

That was such a big part of my life. I bet my mom and dad can remember a lot of what I'm talking about. I even sucked both of them into dancing at one point or another (mom, just for a class I think; dad, for multiple rehearsals and a public performance!)

Stopping dancing (in high school, when I decided the weekly classes and rehearsals took too much time away from friends and boyfriends) is probably one of the only things I regret in my life. Since I stopped formally dancing, my personal career has continued. Sophomore year of college my roommate and our closest friends choreographed a dance for... ourselves... because... we were bored? and rehearsed for hours a night until the person beneath us complained. In addition to David's and my sometimes nightly dance parties in our living room, I also convinced him to perform a choreographed first dance at our wedding. I convinced a team at work that we should make a video for one of our clients with all of the popular dances commonly done at weddings so that they could practice and participate with their family. Dancing when I was pregnant with Ellie was the thing that made me happiest and made us laugh the most. Really, a pregnant woman dancing is a w e s o m e. In the first few weeks when Ellie was only happy if she was being bounced around, we learned that putting on music and bouncing to the beat makes it so much more tolerable, fun even. You should try it--feeling grumpy? Stuck doing something that you don't want to do? Click this link and shake it fast. You'll feel better.

I hope Ellie loves to dance. I hope she'll ask me to make up shows with her. Maybe she won't want to take classes, but she'll be expected to participate in family dance parties. And hopefully she'll teach me how to dougie.