"Save The Last Dance For Me..."

 

Guess what I have just been watching!! Yes, Strictly Come Dancing is back and I couldn't think of anything more horrendous than a world without music and dancing in it, as human beings there can not be a better way to express why we are here on earth than to dance! As the years have been crueler and crueler to me by making my back as much use as a chocolate teapot, all I have left now are the wonderful memories of all the places I have danced in (and a couple of nightmares too!).

When I was around five or six years old, I had a lot of trouble just walking and our local GP diagnosed 'weak ankles', something you don't hear every day I'll bet. His suggestion to strengthen my ankles was to send me to dance classes and as luck would have it, out next door neighbour's daughter was already enrolled in a local school. After tagging along with her and checking it out I decided to give it a go and that was me - hooked. I started off doing Ballet, then joined the weekly Tap class and finally finished it off with Modern Dance. I was soon zipping through the awards and I entered a pile of competitions, for which I still have a collection of medals (shame my mother threw all my other medals and trophies away, they were the only thing I have left now!). I had some great partners over the years and I genuinely thought I had a chance to carry on and make it as a professional when I grew up.

I suspect that that my dad was always a little disappointed in me, especially when I would come back from class all full of beans about what was happening, only to have him close any conversations down as quickly as possible. I also remember him calling me a 'little poof' more than once, but he didn't understand my world and so it just became something we never talked about. As I grew older too, I found my self-confidence was gradually being eroded away by a few older boys at my school who knew I went to dance lessons and rejoiced in telling anyone with ears what a little freak I was.

In the end I let everyone else's opinion weight me down and I just cracked under the pressure and gave it all up, but I never lost my love of dance and wherever there was a dancefloor, you would find me on it, shamelessly letting anyone who cared to watch know that I was relentless in my moves and really didn't give a fig what anyone thought about me anymore, if I wanted to dance then that is exactly what I would do.

During my twenty plus years in the Royal Air Force I spent a lot of time on a lot of different committees as local in-house DJ for hire (I even managed to get a job on BFBS Radio when I lived in Gibraltar!) and the surest way to get people dancing is to be the first one on the dancefloor - that was always my job!, making sure the evening went with a bang not a whimper. As I said earlier, all I have now are memories as I just can't dance any more (but it has yet to stop me from at least trying!!) but I love to watch others dance and every year on Strictly Come Dancing (the US version "Dancing With The Stars" really needs Craig Revel-Horwood as the judges overmark EVERY dance, I am convinced it is because the yanks can't handle criticism!) I watch each dance and before Len or Craig get to tell the contestants what they are doing right or wrong I have already dished my identical advice out! I love a good fleckle and yet you would only need to take one look at me to know how out of sorts that statement is with the way I look.

Over the last few years I have put on a massive amount of weight and yet I still dream of one day being able to join a dance school agan and maybe learning some ballroom, who knows what the future holds and I haven't thrown the towel in just yet!!

As for this week's card, the challenge over at Pepalito's is (#15) "Anything Goes" Sorry it is so late being posted here but I have had a rough week and this is the first day I have felt able to put something up that wasn't a rant against my pain! My image is the very wonderful Tom (availabe here) and he costs a very reasonable $3.50 (about £2.24). I have used a Basic Grey DP, a Marianne Die. A Magnolia die (the fence) and a Make It Crafty chipboard swirl.

I woud finally like to say a big hello to my new followers, thank you so much for joining, I hope you like my work as much as I love doing it! I also want to say Hi to Carol, a craft-club friend who told me yesterday that she reads my blog regularly, the poor woman must have a dreadful social life!! No, seriously though, It is so nice to know that people come back time and time again just to read what I am writing, I must be doing something okay!!

Anyhoo peeps, that's me off now, Downton Abbey is on soon and there's no chance I would miss that!

Take Care and Hugs 'n Stuff,

Andy

xx
Entered Into: Challenge Up Your Lifec#24 - Autumn/Halloweem