Dennis & Lisa Dancing Date

I am a big fan of “So You Think You Can Dance” . I watch it all the way from the auditions and marvel at both the talent people have and the nerve others have.  Although I am too much of a “feeler” to make fun of the crazies and feel bad for them when they get slammed by the judges, I do admit to laughing so hard I cried at one guy’s audition.  Dennis can attest that I watched it three times and laughed harder each time.   I have watched most of the shoes and always get  touched or excited when they dance an especially inspiring routine.   This show connects me to my love of dancing and inspired me to go try adult ballet classes again. 

  When I found out they were  touring I was psyched and immediately went to look for a performance in my area.  Unfortunately, the closest performance was 1.5 hrs away from where we live.   As a consolation, I got Dennis and I tickets to watch “Gala of International Dance Stars” at the Aronoff center.  The day arrived and as the fates would have it, we had a new babysitter and spent a good amount of time going over the boys’ routine and ended leaving late.  To complicate matters, for the first time since I’ve been here, we couldn’t find parking and got to the door a good 10 minutes late.  I was pretty stressed because I had the experience in Chicago, that if you arrived late for a show, you had to watch it on a TV in the lobby until intermission.  Thankfully the usher told us that we could still go in but sit in the back until intermission.

  Since the show had started and they were showing ballet, the whole place was pitch black with the exception of a soft spotlight on the ballerina on stage.  We handed our tickets to an elderly lady with a penlight who motioned to the right and told us to sit.  I couldn’t see anything at all! Not where the stairs were, not where the seats were, nothing.  I reached out my arms and starting waving them in front of me in hopes that I would touch the edge of the row.  Meanwhile I was half-squatting because I knew that if my foot were to touch the edge of the stairs, my heels would have ensured a tumble all the way down to the first level.  The elderly lady kept pointing to the back and Dennis ventured in that direction in hopes of finding the row. Thankfully, at that moment, the act ended and we had some additional light which revealed that we had been trying to sit on the wall.   The elderly lady, who obviously couldn’t see either, was trying to get Dennis to sit behind the last row of seats, between the back of those seats and the wall.  Once we could see, we sat down and tried to enjoy the show.

 Unfortunately, my mind kept returning to the ridiculousness of the situation and laughter bubbled up in my chest until my shoulders were shaking.  Now, the people watching this show were really into it and there was nothing funny about a classic contemporary routine so I kept trying to be quiet.  Dennis kept looking at me quizzically and poking my side until I told him why I was laughing.  Then he started giggling too.  The whole situation was made worse by the fact that during intermission, the elderly usher came over and apologized for trying to  make use sit in the floor saying that she thought there were some chairs back there, which of course generated more bouts of giggling. 

 After I calmed down, Dennis started me going again by pointing out that one of the ballet dancers (a man) had a tutu.  He asked me if normally male ballet dancers wore tutus.  I responded that it wasn’t , indeed, a “tutu”.  That it was a “mutu” (male tutu).  This sent us both into bouts of hilarity that ended with me stuffing my mouth with tissues to try to contain my laughs and Dennis watching the show with shaking shoulders and tears in his eyes. 

 Between the “mutu” and sitting on the floor, I would say we had a great date. 🙂