For the Fun of it

As most of you know, I’m a big fan of swing – the lindy hop in particular.

In fact, as soon as I got a car (which I’m forever grateful for, Nico) I drove on down, took me some free lessons and learned me to dance.

And I like to think that I’ve gotten pretty decent at it after five years.

But I recently joined this lindy hop dance practice group to basically become a better dancer. The people in this group are all really good dancers….and they’re constantly critiquing my form.

I understand why they’re doing this. See, everyone in the group takes this advanced class at the Lindygroove (where I go to dance) except me. Why? Because you have to *audition* to get into the advanced class. The instructors there like your form to be a certain way because it helps you learn what they teach you, I guess….

Everyone in the group wants me in the class because we tend to go over a lot of the stuff they learn there. And I actually did try out for it (the class) a few years back……..but didn’t get in. That was a harsh blow to the ole’ self-confidence, I tell ya. For a while afterwards, I focused a lot on making sure I was doing everything as I should’ve been….and it actually made me worse.

Eventually, though, I shook it off because I realized that this course of action didn’t make any sense. At that point, I knew I was a pretty good dancer - maybe not up to their standards, but decent enough. So why put myself through all the criticism and self-consciousness of getting someone else’s approval?? The whole point of lindy hop (or any hobby really) is to have fun. And I felt that if I did end up taking the class, I’d be more worried about where I was stepping or correcting my posture than anything else.

And that’s kind of how I still feel about trying out for that class.

I’ve heard a lot of people argue the opposite though: if you really like something, you’ll strive to improve at it because that’ll make it more fun….and I guess that’s the logic that I’m subscribing to at the moment.