The great equalizer

This past Saturday was Jamie day. To start off, we picked her up from O'Hare at about 1:30 AM (don't you love delayed flights?). We immediately went to the first edible fast food joint with an open drive-thru. Whoppers for everyone - we were all really hungry.

Saturday night, we went to Gracie's on Webster and met up with an eclectic group of people. The best part of Gracie's was being amused by all the people "dancing" in front of the dj to the likes of "Living on a Prayer", "Love Shack", "Pour some sugar on me", "Barbie Girl" and "Whip it!". Some people are just bad dancers. It's a simple fact of nature. There's nothing to be ashamed of by it. I'm not trying to put anyone down, it's just true. Accept it and move on, is what I say. I don't claim to be a very good dancer myself, but I know the good from the bad when I see them.

Most of the people dancing at Gracie's were late 20's - early 30's folks wearing glittery tops, button-down stripped shirts, TBPs, and khakis. Hellen's boyfriend, the ex-AI High Alpha commented that the likelihood of being a bad dancer seems to go up if you are wearing a button-down shirt (buttoned all the way to the top) tucked into your pants. I agreed with him.

The dancing theme continued after Gracie's at a place called Nacional 27, a salsa club. This kind of salsa, NOT this kind. It's been a long time since I've been to a real club like this. We walked around the place looking for Hellen's med school friends. I was impressed by the diversity. I'm not usually the type of person that makes a big deal out of diversity, but I was struck by it this time. The people there were all shapes, sizes, colors, and ages. All of these things just don't matter when dancing is concerned.

Dancing is the great equalizer.

The heart of these clubs isn't with the drinking or the socializing, it's very simply with the dancing. The people go there because they love to dance. Then, it doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, young or old, you get the picture. All that matters is how well you can dance. You can't buy dance moves, and you certainly can't fake them. If you genuinely enjoy them, nothing else matters. That's why the young, handsome guy will dance with the middle aged mother of five. That's why the "prom queen" will dance with the short, unfortunate-looking guy. All that mattes are the moves.

There are some guys that arrive early, close the place down and never sit down in between. They are dancing all the time. They change partners every couple of songs and it doesn't matter who the partner is, as long as they want to dance. And this is honestly true. A guy will go up to a table with 9 girls and just say, "who wants to dance?". It doesn't matter which one accepts, as long as one of them does.

Of course looks plays a little into it, but in the end, the real test in on the crowded, hot, sweaty,
rhythmic dance floor. If you've got the goods there, nothing else matters. I say this from an observers perspective because I've never been a good rhythm dancer. I happen to have my goods somewhere else.