Beginner Turned Amazing

I have written many times about being humble and dancing with beginners because at one point we were all there and someone danced with us. I’ve heard people add to that a threat that one day they’ll become amazing and won’t want to dance with YOU. Well, my Good Samaritan efforts that flowed out of those admonitions paid off in full yesterday when I finally had my first “beginner turned amazing” moment on the dance floor. What was funny about it is that I swear the guy planned it for months! But memorable it was nevertheless.

I met the gentleman when he was first starting off – maybe a couple weeks into his lessons. For the next month or so we’ve crossed paths at various practices and events and I made it a point to say yes to at least one dance a night with him. Luckily he wasn’t completely devoid of an ability to pick up on social cues and rarely ever asked for a second one. Barely anyone else who was remotely good ever danced with him (suckeeeers! You’re gonna miss out now!) After the first month we haven’t seen much of each other. Or maybe he just didn’t want to intrude and never asked again. Until yesterday.

Baldly approaching me at the spot where I stationed myself for the night, he proceeded with a “Hi. I haven’t seen you in a while. How have you been? Would you like to dance?” The smirk on his face just screamed “planned” to me, but of course I accepted, although it took a few moments to place the familiar face since I haven’t seen him for about five months. Once placed, I expected the old version of robotic moves and steps anywhere but on beat. But much to my surprise (and his satisfaction about my surprised expression) I found myself dancing with a solid lead who was on time, possessed a wide variety of moves in his arsenal, and was very comfortable to dance with!

Since I’ve only been dancing for a little over a year, this has never happened to me before. But now that it has, I’ll just have to reiterate over and over again. Dance with the beginners! Because one day they will turn into an amazing dancer and will want to dance with you because you were nice enough to dance with them when they were first starting off.