Select Page

This is an odd Geek Out, but I feel it has been brewing for quite some time. It really became apparent as I started moving blog entires from the old blog into the new one, that I am pretty obsessed with dance. It’s an obsession I’ve had for quite some time.

Zoom back to sixth grade when I was asking, closer to begging really, to go see a touring company of A Chorus Line when it came to town. You might take that as an obviously gay trait manifesting itself in musical theater (and I’ll grant that might be part of it), but it was really about the dance. There’s something about a good dance, how the body moves through the space accompanied by music—or in some cases total silence, that is completely mesmerizing to me. A good dance can turn me into an emotional mess—in a good way—faster than almost anything else.

Unfortunately, I’m plagued by terminal bad rhythm. I can’t dance to save my life. I toy with the idea that taking a ballroom class would be fun. This idea cycles up in my mind every time Dancing with the Stars starts up. I mean I should be able to pull off something at least as decent, or better, than say Adam Corolla, right? Will, having seen my unfortunate rhythm play out over the years, would probably disagree. I do wonder what it would be like to fly through the air like someone in a Twyla Tharp dance or to have the fluid sexiness of a Fosee move.

That is just not me though, and as I near 40 I suspect it will never be. Yes, I morphed into a hockey player a few years ago, but I didn’t need rhythm or grace for that… and since I play defense I just have to be the enforcer who gets in the way. I’m certainly not gliding around in anything that resembles a dance. I will, however, admit to hitting the ice early before one game…early enough that no one else was around… with iPod in my ears, going around the rink to the finale from the Xanadu movie. To anyone watching, I was skating in circles; in my imagination though there was a lot more going on.

And so, this Friday, we contemplate dance again with some of my very favorite things: a clip from Matthew Bourne’s amazing all-male Swan Lake, Drew Lachey’s paso doble from Dancing with the Stars season 2, Billy letting go in Billy Elliot (look for a Geek Out on that this fall when the musical comes to Broadway) and a bit of Fosse.


Swan Lake


Drew Lachey and the paso doble


Billy Elliot


Fosse