Sunday, January 2, 2011

Swing Dancing

We've all seen those old movies showing couples dancing to the likes of Benny Goodman and Paul Whiteman. Years ago, in the office--this would have been in the late 1990's, we had a guy and a girl, both in their twenties, who went swing dancing, and it struck me as rather peculiar and alarming. Swing Dancing was something that my father's generation did.  My father had grown up in the working class neighborhoods of New York City in the 1930's and 40's.  My father was firstly an athlete and an exceptional one, but he was also a great dancer. He once stressed to me that the best dancer was always the most popular guy in the neighborhood.  However, the mentality of the generation from the 60's, which I inherited, was to reject almost everything from the older generation. We know how people danced to Rock and Roll. To me, the thought of people from my generation or later doing swing dancing was absurd. Objectively speaking of course, I realize that I was being ridiculously. Though I am getting used to the idea of young people swing dancing; nevertheless, I have a difficult time imagining myself doing it.  But if you swing dance, God bless you, and keep dancing.

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