so you think you can dance

I was right there with ya'al cheering on big David and at the same time feeling bad for little David (who, by the way, was the only contestant that ever made Ryan Seacrest look tall...). But that was all sooooo YESTERDAY! Today, I have a big grin plastered on my face because me and my buddies Ben and Jerry just finished watching this:

THIS SHOW IS SO STUPID!!! (and stupid means "really great" in cool dancer language, don't ya know!) This is my fourth year watching, and every time it starts--it just feels like summer has officially begun. I love the ballroom dancers and the jazz dancers and the contemporary dancers and the popper/locker/beat boys and the occasional tapper. I think it all makes me so very giddy because.... I was once a dancer.

First, I spent 3 years of junior high choreographing dance routines for our cheerleading squad. We danced to a lot of Depeche Mode and Yaz and that "Oh Yeah!" song from Ferris Bueller. I would spend hours studying dancers in music videos, and taught myself how to move like them ( just like Napoleon Dynamite, only without the moon boots.).

In high school I moved up to the Dance and Drill Team. Our advisor was a professional dancer who had once auditioned for Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation" video. She was 4' 2" of MEAN. We spent numberless hours before and after school, on Saturdays, and sometimes in the evening doing these insane routines she would come up with over and over and over. We would leap and twirl and contort and slam ourselves onto the floor until we were all black and blue---and we had better all do it with a smile....or else! Sometimes in my life, when I feel like giving up on a task, I can hear little Lisa the choreographer's voice in my head : "YOU'D BETTER GET UP AND DO THAT AGAIN AND DO IT RIGHT OR WE'LL BE HERE ALL NIGHT LADIES!!!". And I get up. Because I don't want to be there all night! Anyhow, the result of all that dancing torture we were put through was a really good team. We had to compete against schools with a lot fancier props and costumes and the like, and we always kept up. And heaven knows we always felt like we'd really earned it!

Then, in college, I agreed to take a clogging class with my roommate-- who wanted to meet some guy that was in it. I thought I'd hate it.....but I didn't. I learned to "fuse" the hip-hop/ pop/ jazz/ballet stuff that I'd done in high school with the clogging steps, and ended up having a blast. I still have my clinkity/ tappity shoes, and pull them out on occasion to "impress" my kids.

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So that's why I love So You Think You Can Dance. Because in the privacy of my own family room, with the blinds closed, and the TV turned up loud, I kick off my shoesies and see if I can still learn a new step or two.....and for a few minutes, when no one else is looking---I really think I can dance ;)!