I'm in a dance class. It is called Introduction to Traditional African Dance. We meet twice a week, Wednesday evenings for two hours and Friday mornings for one hour. The class has a live band that plays music for us. Two or three drummers, a cow bell, sometimes one other instrument. Sometimes they teach us songs, as well. I think by the end of the class we will need to sing and dance at the same time. I'm dreading that because I can dance, and I can sing, but I can't do both at the same time. It just doesn't work for me. I get so off beat, it looks as if I'm dancing to a different song that only I can hear.
Since its Friday, I went to dance. the class started as usual. We did a warm up. This generally involves following along with what ever one of our teachers does(similar to an aerobics class). We use that time to practice the various moves. Nothing too difficult. There's just this one teacher who enjoys watching us go crazy. Well, this teacher will tell the drummers to go at double speed. On top of that, he switches between the various dance moves at double speed. So the class is left frantically trying to figure out which move to do and as soon as we have, he's moved onto the next move. Despite feeling the urge to collapse afterwards, I really enjoy it.
After the warm up, we'll do a run through of our dance routine. This includes one practice round, then they split us up into groups so they can see how well we actually know it. Following the routine, we'll generally learn something new.
But that didn't happen today. Class was ended early because the performing arts students were holding an and our teachers told us it would be great, so we all had to go. We did. It was a waste. No food, no dancing. All the Africans in our class skipped out. The one good thing... no great thing was the entertainment. They had this student come with a keyboard and they must have just instructed him to fill time because he had no routine, he sang no songs.
What he did do was sing about whatever thoughts popped into his head. My favorite songs were "to the lady in the front row drinking some sachet water... enjoy your sachet water" and "my phone is ringing now, someone must be calling my phone now. Mmmm, maybe I got a new text message." Those two songs were classics. The rest of his act was equally random and I laughed the whole time. But that still didn't really make it worth the stay. We were there for about 45 minutes and other then that wonderfully thoughtful serenade, nothing happened. At one point, a few of us tried to leave but a man at the gate guilted us into staying. It was reminiscent of the Simpsons episode where they all join the cult. The cult leaders gather the town together to watch a movie about their beliefs. Before the movie began everyone was told that they could leave at any time, if they didn't find the message to be pertinent or believable. Well, after a few minutes of the film someone decides they've had enough and want to leave. The moment he stands up, the movie is stopped, a spotlight is cast down on him and over the intercom, someone asks him if anything is wrong/embarrasses him into sitting back down. The movie continues and spot light goes out. Then, when any subsequent people tried to leave the same thing would happen and in the end everyone stays until they are all brainwashed into believers.
Luckily, my fellow classmates and I weren't subjected to the same fate. We escaped with our lives by sneaking out the back. That was on our second attempt. Actually, we almost didn't make it because on the way out we ran into our head dance teacher. The moment I saw her I ducked away from her disapproving glare and quickened my pace.... we had gone too far to let freedom slip out of our grasp.
When I returned home, it was laundry time. I always do laundry on Fridays. Its done by hand and takes forever, so Fridays are the only day when we(Rihana and I) both have enough time. Its not very hard work, it just takes a really long time. There is one casualty though... my cuticles. They bleed every laundry day. After a couple of hours of rubbing clothes together, they can't help it.
By the way, I love Fridays. Because after laundry is done, i have no more work for the the week and get to relax with my siblings and watch movies until Monday. Fridays are sweet.
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