Ballroom Dancing

Statue on Treasure Island near San Francisco

I really enjoy ballroom dancing, but I am a forever beginner! Ballroom dancing includes Foxtrot, Tango, Waltz, Swing, 2 Step, Salsa, Cha Cha and Rumba, I like Rumba and Cha Cha the best, probably because those are the ones that I have practiced the most and I know the most different steps. I first did ballroom dancing in college. It was a lot of fun then and I was pretty good. I even went on a couple of dates just to go ballroom dancing at the Madonna Inn. It was fun and always stayed with me as something I wanted to pursue, but never got the chance until I got divorced. When I was married my wife didn't want to learn. I don't know why. When I divorced I wanted to find a way to be around people and this made sense. Ballroom dancing crowds don't drink while dancing and most people are from good socio-economic groups.  You have to be able to afford dance classes to improve at all. I originally started at the Fred Astaire Dance Studio which was small and intimate and I took private lessons and group classes and improved to an intermediate level. Then I realized it was really not affordable to me so I changed to Starlite Dance Studio and took some group classes, but mostly just went to their group parties and tried to keep what I already knew. For the past 10 years I have gone periodically. Go for a few weeks and then don't go for a couple of years, then I will miss it and want to go so I will do the same cycle. I give up going when it gets obvious that I am not really good and don't really enjoy the feeling of asking girls to dance all the time. Sometimes I find one girl that wants to dance with me more than once, but that isn't common. In most areas ballroom dancing is fun for men because there are more women there then men, but in this area there are more men than women at dance studios and I end up feeling like I am in line asking the women to dance. I get discouraged sometimes and don't go back for a year or two. I am trying to diet these days so I need the extra exercise and will use ballroom dancing, especially the swing and cha cha, as a workout and will stay longer at the dance parties to get more of a workout.