There is nothing like having a good reason to throw on a fun party dress and sparkly earrings on a summer night. A group of friends and I went swing dancing till 2:30am yesterday evening on the Kennedy Center veranda in downtown D.C. To say the least, my feet are feeling it today. Sadly, I don’t have any pictures to commemorate the evening because my Nikon was too bulky to bring along, and I didn’t want it to get stolen. However, just picture over a thousand individuals gathered on a dimly lit outdoor terrace, with the Big Band Swing music playing, the cool end-of-the-summer breeze, the distant lights of city buildings, and well…that pretty much sums up the evening. One of the highlights was watching all the experts show their talent. This 60-year-old couple was amazing. The guy was actually flipping the lady and doing wild tosses even though we were dancing on a concrete slab of pavement! Talk about living life to the fullest in your old age. And the band was great (“Eric Felton”….check it out on Itunes if you want), playing a mix of everything old and new in the Big Band world of tunes. Of course, you always learn a few lessons of your own. Like, how to graciously accept (or politely turn down) an offer to dance from a perfect stranger. How to laugh it off if the guy you are dancing with has no rhythm and likes to follow the OFF-beat, making it even more difficult for you to follow his lead. And, of course, not to wear even LOW heels next time, because the cement slab allowed for absolutely NO sliding (talk about a calf work-out!) And, as “Sidney” told me, which basically sums it up, not to “work too hard at it.”
