So, there's this girl I have a thing for. It's been off and on and off and on for about 3 years. By now it's more off than on, but I genuinely love her, and am in love with her, and I can't seem to get her out of my head when it's off and she drives me crazy (in a good way!) when it's on. What's a boy to do? 
Pursue her of course!
 
By now, I have exhausted almost every avenue of traditional courtship numerous times over, and I've even come up with some new ones. Sometimes we get back together sometimes we don't (that could be a whole blog unto itself though). I figure, she's into acting and singing and "all that jive" so, why not take her dancing. My first attempt was about a year ago. I thought about the Sydney Dance Company offering classes. This didn't really turn into anything, I think she might have been caught up in her own world of stuff at the time. More recently (ie a month or two back) I tried asking her to a Latin + Salsa festival in Darling Harbour, but sadly it rained. Next was a night at The Basement, but she was busy that night. Finally there was just a humble request to go dancing *anywhere* one Saturday night. This too did not happen, and so I was thinking about mothballing the idea and trying something else, but to my surprise, we were chatting one day when all of a sudden she asked if I'd be interested in joining her in a dance class!
I reiterated the fact that I have 2 left feet (not to mention no lightweight shoes... goth boots do have their problems when it comes to that!) and I'm a total n00b on the dance floor, so it would have to be something very basic for beginners. That was cool with her too, because, she was trying a new and different genre and wanted to start at grassroots too.
 
She picked out DanceCentral Sydney as a venue and together we both kinda liked the Hip Hop / Street class for beginners. I was fairly nervous and apprehensive about it for most of the week and weekend, partly from actually doing something like this, and I haven't been on stage since Miss Bate's Year 8 choir at school, but more so from other stuff inside my head. We talked a little about it, but I didn't really lead on too much about the inner workings of the 'other stuff'.
 
Monday afternoon rolled around, and we got there about 15 minutes early. As we approached the building, I started to see the evening all falling together. The building was close to how I pictured it in my mind, old wooden steps, thin narrow corridors, and really poor soundproofing so you could hear other classes taking place. There was a "ye olde" smell about it, with scuffed unpolished wood and dirty white walls. Something about it was interesting - it reminded me a lot of my first visit to Dorkbot-Sydney, probably because it's an almost identical style building with very similar purpose. The lady behind the counter at the end of the corridor at the top of the stairs was very friendly, and took our $16, gave us a small insurance waiver form to indemnify them, pop us on the mailing list (if you tick the box), and a sheet to sign us up to the class.
 
Sitting around waiting reminded me a lot of waiting in public hospital doctors offices and outpatient waiting rooms. The lighting was about the same, and there were posters everywhere outlining stuff the organisation was involved with, as well as other interesting acts that I'm not sure if they were involved with, or if they had up purely because it looked cool (Jason Alexander's December Tour of Sydney is one such example). No, this was a step above public hospital waiting rooms. At least the crap on the walls here was stuff I could be bothered to read, and remember! In fact, my only apprehension was the crummy rap music that was playing from a class before ours, and I was worried it was going to be the same for us given both classes had Hip Hop in their title.
Sipping on water and eating a muesli bar, looking at the art helped the remaining 10 minutes go by quickly, and we're called in to the room. It was a large open space with a couple of fans, several large glass mirrors up the front, and wide 'tracks' organising the room into columns.
 
We start with some basic steps - literally, learning how to move your shoulders, hips and bum. Do I remember it? No, but I suppose when put in the situation it will come back pretty quickly. I felt I was actually getting the hang of it! I could even do a sideways walking action where your shoulders are supposed to rock up and down at opposite times to your steps. Could I remember how to do it right now? Probably not, but put in the situation again, I think I'd get it much faster than before.
 
We progressed onto combining several of the actions together, as well as several new steps involving arm waves, more side steps involving some twists and also stepping up and down on one foot whilst rocking your opposite arm for balance. That last one I felt I got quite well :) Unfortunately I think we started to combine this too soon with everything else. For me, I would have been content just practicing what we'd learned for the rest of the hour.
 
Although I could see why we were getting multiple steps choreographed together (it was building up to a series of dance moves) I felt, for a beginners class, it was possibly too quick for a first timer.
 
The instructor was really good in that he stopped to show us how we should be stepping, and to put our balance on our feet, and how far to step apart. I don't think it was his fault that he had to rush us, it was quite possibly the curriculum he had to teach. Given it's not designed as a set course over several weeks, I can see why and how it works: next week, we'll probably cover the exact same basics, with maybe a few changes and then build up to a different routine.
 
Did I have fun? For the first 45 minutes yes. For the last 15 minutes I felt very lost, and I was falling behind.
 
Will I go back next week? Yes. No way in hell I'm letting some hip hop dance tracks get the better of an EBM fan. Besides, I gotta get it right so I can speed it up and unleash my wrath at Die Maschine. A good dancer is bound to Get the Girl and Kill the Baddies (and save the entire planet).