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Getting Wild Style

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When I first saw it, I was in awe. I came home, went directly into the bathroom (the one with the really big mirror) and tried to replicate the moves. I haphazardly threw some water on my hair so that it might look as though I had been caught in a rain storm. But I didn’t really look like anyone in the movie and my hair just looked as if it had been splashed accidentally. The movie I’m referring to, of course, is Step Up 2: The Streets. And specifically, the scene where Andie does the heart beat move and some guy appears to be resuscitating her without actually touching her.

Watch it in the second half of this clip and tell me you don’t want to run to the bathroom too:

Since seeing the movie, I’ve wanted to learn how to become a better dancer. Not that I am a terrible dancer, but I am no Andie. And I just keep thinking about how fun it would be to burst into a coordinated, highly complex dance number with all of my equally talented dancer friends one day when we are all outside hanging out in our tanktops in the rain. Some day that day will come, and when it does, I will be ready.

To get there, Nathalie, Denise and I signed up to take dance classes at a nearby studio. Our instructor is awesome. He has “wild style” shaved into the side of his head. I could just end my story right there based on that fact alone, but no, seriously, his dancing is so good. It is so good he should have his own cable show, one where he just dances 24 hours a day, taking small breaks to drink water and to think of new dance moves to do. I know for sure he would have at least 2 loyal viewers.

Today was our first hip hop class and everyone there must have been dancing for years now because they all seemed to know what he was talking about when the instructor would ask, “Do you hear it?” I didn’t know what we were supposed to be listening for and in the last quarter of class, I sorta started making up my own dance moves to supplement the ones I couldn’t catch on to quick enough. They were a combination of the macarena and the electric slide and went well with the beat of the music if I do say so myself. Now, if you’ll excuse me, there is a bathroom mirror waiting to see how I’m going to throw in the Roger Rabbit as my secret finale move for next week.

Last modified: January 10, 2019