Last Christmas my father surprised my mother with a gift certificate to a local dance studio for some private dance lessons. Now I know none of you here know Poppa Coyote, but just believe me when I say that this is HUGE! The man does not dance. Oh sure, we have some friends and family members who just love to drag him on the dance floor, but after a few moments of awkwardly flailing around he skulks back to his seat to find his beer. Poppa Coyote is always a good sport, but when it comes to dancing he tolerates it, at best.
As his daughter's wedding approached however, Poppa Coyote realized that he would be expected to do a little bit more than hop out onto the dance floor for his obligatory 30-second shuffle and so he sought out a professional dance instructor. Surprisingly I think my father is actually enjoying the lessons because he recently called me up and asked if I would be interested in taking a lesson with him in preparation for our father-daughter dance. I have to say I was a bit shocked, but I wasn't about to say no, so last Saturday we headed over to the studio for our first (and only!) dance lesson. Our instructor was fantastic and taught us a nice, slow hesitated waltz that goes perfectly with our father-daughter song, I Loved Her First. I will admit we were both a bit stiff and awkward at the beginning, but by the end of the lesson we started to relax and were able to chat a bit in between counting steps. We even threw in a few twirls!
Poppa Coyote took our lesson a little bit more seriously than I did and even brought the video camera so we could review it and practice from home (Remember what I said about him always having the video camera out?! I wasn't kidding!). While my dad counted steps and sternly looked into the distance I followed his lead and then promptly cracked up every time one of us missed a step.
Oh and I wore my wedding shoes which was smart. I figured spinning around in them for an hour and a half was a good way to break them in and boy was I right! Even though my feet were a bit tired after all that steppin' my feet survived free of blisters or cuts so I'm considering it a success. (Although I'm definitely glad I have my back up flippy floppies just in case.)
I loved it so much that I came home and asked Mr. Coyote if he would be interested in sneaking in a lesson the week before our wedding. To my surprise he jumped at the opportunity! Seriously you woulda thought I was proposing to him or something -- the guy was so pumped he barely let me finish my sentence. And so, I will be returning to the dance studio in a few weeks with Mr. Coyote in tow.
Are you taking dance lessons for your wedding?
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