Saturday, November 08, 2008

Messing up the shim sham

During our monthly first Friday swing dance, we regularly do this shim sham routine. It's a lot of fun, and I look forward to it each month.

Tonight though, it was messed up by this small group of young people who had no idea what they were doing. They stood right at the front of the room, even though they had no idea what they were doing. Instead of doing the dance properly, they were just flailing around.

Now, I don't mind that; after all, everyone has to start somewhere. However, if you don't know how to do a particular dance, you probably shouldn't be standing at the front of the class. Go to the back where you won't be bothering anyone. Or if it's clear that you can't follow, drop out and stay on the sidelines. That's just common sense.

They meant well, and they were trying to have fun. Still, they obviously didn't realize that by flailing around in front of everyone else, they were distracting the dancers behind them and causing them to mess up. It was a disaster.

Don't get me wrong. I know that this is a small thing in the grand scheme of events. Still, it's an unfortunate incident that could have been easily avoided if these people had shown a little bit more common sense.