The Dance Evening (09/01/2007)

Dance evening 1: dancing the day away
Hendrik Steyn

Dancing was never my style. Being born blind, it is very difficult for me to lead my dance partner around the dance floor. I have never met a blind person who liked dancing and for me this was true until that Saturday, 6 January 2007.
We met our instructor, Elisabeth, at the club house for lessons in traditional German dancing. My trepidation was great until I took the first step...
I was immediately transported into a world of music, sound and smell of which I was not aware could exist.
It was as Elisabeth has said: "When we dance, we do not speak different languages. We speak one language only: the language of music."
Among the dances we learnt was the "seven steps", the "polka" and the "star polka".
I had some difficulties with the polka until one of the people in my group told me: "Huppel sywaarts"/"skip side-ways" and then nothing could stop me and did the polka with a huge grin of delight on my sweating face.
The "Star Polka" was a bit more challenging. The man chooses a partner with whom to polka. When the music changes, the man flings his right arm around his partner's waist and then he has to put his left hand on another man's left shoulder so that a big circle is formed. Then the music would change and all the men would turn to the inside of the circle to begin a strange clapping movement (I could never master this and, according to tradition, the man who does it wrong must buy the next round of beer. I would have been broke through-and-through).
I concentrated so much on the clapping that I did not watch what was going on behind my back. When the music changed again to the Polka, I swung around only to find that now I had a new partner.
I like the "Star Polka" because it gives you the opportunity to dance with several women and not give offence to your first partner. We were also shown traditional German clothing and some people were given the opportunity to dress up like German men and -women of old. Photos were taken with these people to remind us of the good time we have had.
When the dancing was over, I realised that the day was over and that night was falling in Europe and that soon most people would go to bed and dream of ... well ... whatever people usually dream of. In my case? Dancing of course!
Thank you Barbara for leading me around the floor. Thank you Elisabeth for teaching me to enjoy dancing.