Tom Bergeron, why haven’t you called? I’ve been anxiously waiting for the phone to ring inviting me to be one of the contestants on your show! While I’m not exactly a celebrity, I’m sure it would do well with his TV audience because they could more easily relate to me; being one of them. I can only see the couple looking down the street; Harriet elbowing Bill and saying, “Look how graceful and poised he is! He’s one of us! You could be doing that if you weren’t so lazy!”
I’m sure you can see how having a man from the street on your show could spur the ballroom craze that’s sweeping the nation to an even higher level. In the finals I would sweep the court with my professional partner, Cheryl Burke, eliciting cries of “Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!” of the three judges. Breathing heavily from the effort of a perfect dance, she looked humbly into the camera and said, “I just wanted to lose a few pounds. That’s why I joined. I had no idea we’d gain it all!” That’s showing a lot of humility and it will increase your grades exponentially.
Back in my college days, I signed up for a ballroom dance class. Most of the class at that time was comprised of mainly girls. The guys back then were all eaten up by testosterone and were afraid of being called sissies or worse. However, youth knows no fear, so I joined the class. My sense of pride vanished when I found out that the class had twice as many girls as boys! I’m not stupid
The class was fun and I learned a little how to dance the foxtrot, the rumba and the waltz. However, I found that this knowledge didn’t apply much to dancing at the local bar on a Saturday night. There wasn’t much of a crowd for rumba at the Stardust Club, so over the years I lost touch with ballroom dancing until I saw Dancing with the Stars. The way they dance on TV and the way I learned were definitely two completely different sets of dances. I had never seen anything like what they were doing on DWS and the girls in my old dance class never wore costumes like the contestants on TV!
Dance studios are popping up all over the world due to the success of Dancing With The Stars! Millions of average, down-to-earth people whose previous idea of exercise was pressing the button on the TV remote now rush to the nearest dance studio; sign up for dance classes. Although I first learned to dance because there were girls in the class, there are other benefits to dancing.
You will generally discover a greater appreciation of music and its rhythms. Your posture will be much better because you can’t slouch in ballroom dancing. The physical benefits are numerous; more resistance, your circulatory system will develop more and your legs will get stronger. All this exercise will not only help you lose weight, but it will help in the care of high blood pressure and diabetes. I wasn’t thinking about all of this years ago in dance class, but it must have worked out because I’m still kicking my heels.
Ballroom dancing has come a long way in this country in the last 40 years. There is even a concerted effort to make ballroom dancing an Olympic event. Even the name for the world and Olympic competition has been changed to “Dancesport”, but for me it is still ballroom dancing.
Ballroom dancing has been competitive at the collegiate level for years, but I was surprised that MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, annually hosts one of the largest ballroom dancing competitions in the country, with nationally and internationally renowned dancers competing. Who would have thought that such a serious and venerable institution would know anything about dancing. Universities all over the country have ballroom dance teams that compete and they are phenomenal. There are so many ballroom dance competitions that I wouldn’t be surprised if there aren’t any titles in ballroom dancing soon!
I’ll be waiting by the phone for next year’s call. Please don’t wait too long because age is getting to me and my joints ache. Guess I’ll have to sign up for a dance class again. Plus I need to lose a few kilos.