Hearing Music Through My Feet

"One and two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight. And one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight."  These were words that I grew up with from the age of four until I graduated from high school.  Turn on the music, and I start to count away.     I've often said that I hear music through my feet.  My choir friends jokingly say, they love to stand behind me during the "Alleluia Chorus."  They're impressed with the hip action.  I don't even realize that I do it.  It's just a natural movement.  I still, even to this day, own a pair of tap shoes.  In fact I have two pair. One with heals, and one called jazz taps.

My childhood was blessed, and I do mean blessed with dance being a large part of my world.  I have often said that besides my parents, that my strongest mentor in my life has been my dance instructor, Miss Bette.  I studied dance from the very young age of four, and continued structured study until I graduated from high school. Then it was time to "move on."  I probably didn't really dance for another five years or so, but it seems that once I got my feet under me, settled into a job after college, and thought I had "grown up", I still often gravitated back to dance.  I joined every type of exercise class I could that involved music and dance. To heck with jogging, treadmills, rowers, stair steppers ... just turn on the music and let me dance.  I clogged with The River City Cloggers, I even taught kinder class for a period of time.   Let me tell you, there is nothing quite like 15 pairs of four-year-old feet in tap shoes.  I had a magic carpet in my class room, and when it wasn't your turn to show me the step, you got to stand on the magic carpet, with a special treat to follow. 

Miss Bette still teaches dance in our community.  She has to be in her late 70's to early 80's, and I believe she looks like she may be 60.  She has trained children, of children, of children.  She'll tell me, on times that we get to talk,  "Oh, I have Lisa's granddaughter in my class now."  She is so vibrant and proud of all the generations that have come her way.  She still teaches "tappercise" and some of my former dance mates and I attended some of her classes. She had every age group in the room, and there was a group of first time adult tappers in the second row.  All of us previous students were lined up in the first row.  She showed us the steps, then turned on the music.  Off we went!  The second row stopped about mid way through and just watched the ones of us tapping away in the front row. Bette just said, "Don't mind them. They've been dancing with me since they were four."   That's 54 years!!!!!

Dance taught me so much more than steps.  It taught me discipline, hard work, and poise.  In my "real job" I am often presenting to a full room of people.  This doesn't intimidate me.  I've been in front of audiences since I was four.    It seems that sometimes during parties or get-togethers with friends the "what if" games start.  You know the 'what if" you could do this over, or "what if" you could have lunch with.  My two favorite "what if" questions and answers are:

"What if you could have chosen your favorite job. What would it be."  My answer, I would have liked to have been 5'9" tall so I could have been a Rockette or a "gypsy" on Broadway and moved from one chorus line to another.

"What if  God asked you something you would like to do in Heaven that you didn't get to do on Earth."  My answer, I'd like to tap dance with Gene Kelly.  Just turn on the rain and give me the umbrella, and I'll be singing and dancing in the rain.

"Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh.  
Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh.
Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh."

If you need a  translation, Miss Bette just taught you the "Old Soft Shoe."   Just keep hearing that music in your feet.  It'll make everything seem brighter every day.

This is written for the prompt from The Red Dress Club.  We were to write about the word "rhythm" without using the word, and tell how it has played a part in our lives.