Dragon, Fairy, Duckling, Swan

Last Saturday was a big day for dancing. Or rather, watching other people do it.

In the afternoon, K and I went to "Volumes of Pleasure" our little local Los Osos bookstore, to watch the Cal Poly Dragon Dance Team's performance at the Chinese New Year celebration. I don't know anything about Chinese New Year, so I'm sure there was all kinds of symbolism and tradition that I missed out on. But it was still an awful lot of fun.

They had cleared their parking lot to make room for two huge dragons.


And their band.


I don't think I'd ever seen dragon dancers before. I couldn't believe how easy it was to forget about the people inside and almost believe we were watching real dragons. Maybe that's because I grew up with Sesame Street and The Muppets. All those hours watching "Pigs in Space" must have trained my brain to accept soft-sculpture animals as another kind of life-form.

There were a bunch of little kids in strollers watching from the sidelines. I tried to imagine what they must be thinking. They were at that age where Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy are all real. Why couldn't the New Year's Dragons be real too? They certainly had a lot of personality; prancing around like ponies and tossing their manes like lions.





At the culmination of the performance, the Dragons stood up tall on their hind feet and the white one managed to bite and "swallow" a cabbage that was hanging from the bookstores awning. I'm going to have to find out what the symbolism of this was. And why it spit out a cloud of cabbage bits at the crowd afterward.



It was really a dramatic and impressive performance, especially when the dancers revealed them selves and we realized that the front-legs of the white dragon were played by a pretty big guy. Imagine how much strength and balance the hind-legs dancer must have in order to do the standing up maneuver.



Just by coincidence, I spent the evening watching more dancers from Cal Poly. But they were dressed very differently, and had a whole other set of "moves."

Welcome to San Luis Obispo and the Cal Poly Mustang Ball DanceSport Competition!


I actually debated about going to this. K didn't want to join me. I thought it might be the kind of thing that sounded like more fun that it actually would be. But I decided to go, and my sweet friend A decided to go too. Since she was with me, we would have had fun no matter what...but it was really a blast! We had a ball at the ball.

We showed up a little late and the dancers were already in full swing. (West Coast Swing, that is.)


There was also Salsa, and Tango, and Waltzing and Fox Trot and some other dances I couldn't identify for sure. We couldn't really hear or understand the announcer, so we had to make the best sense of things we could just by watching.

The first hour seemed to be competitions for the beginner and intermediate dancers. They danced in big groups of maybe a dozen couples at a time. Between every song, half the people would stay, half would leave, and a bunch of new pairs would pour in from the chairs set up on both sides of the dance floor. We gave up trying to figure out what was happening, and who was winning. It was entertaining enough just watching them twist and shuffle and spin. But then something happened we could understand.

The announcers cleared the floor and invited any one to come up and dance who wanted to. But they couldn't dance with their own partner or anyone else they had already danced with that evening. It was delightful watching them all scramble around searching for a stranger they could pair up with. At some point it became obvious that there weren't enough guys to go around. As soon as the announcer said this out loud, half a dozen men sprang from the audience, almost falling over themselves as they dashed to the stage. It was thrilling, and touching. They ran toward those left-over girls like they were saving them from a fire, or drowning or Chinese Dragons. I wish someone had run to me like that every time I was picked last in gym class.

When the music started, the judges walked around tapping couples on the shoulder, just like in "It's a Wonderful Life" except that the floor didn't open up onto a swimming pool later on. Once half the crowd had been eliminated, they made every one find a new stranger and dance some more. After the second elimination, they made it even more interesting. "Now," they said, "Ladies lead!" This made it obvious who the really good dancers were. It was wonderful watching the women take charge and twirl their boy partners around like tops. And the not-as-good dancers were pretty entertaining too, as they struggled and fumbled through turns and passes they knew by heart from the other side.

As the "Jack and Jill" contest (I think that's what they called it) came to a close, I could feel excitement building in the seats behind me. When I turned to look, I saw that the evening was about to step up to another level. All the contestants so far had been dressed nice, in cute little skirts and pressed pants. But these ladies were decked out in brightly colored formal ballgowns with sparkles and tulle and feather boas trailing behind. Their partners wore tuxedos with bow ties and spats.


Of course, once they got into the good light, they didn't stand still for long. But, I was able to get a couple of shots that show how elaborate their outfits were.


But I couldn't capture how graceful they were, or how quickly they glided across the floor.


Until this part of the evening, it had been impossible for us to figure out who was winning or losing. The announcers didn't state it clearly and we were ignorant of the systems and codes that the dance community seemed to take for granted. But we knew who won the formal ballroom competition, because they walked away with a huge trophy!



To our surprise, it was this couple. At the beginning, I thought there was no way the girl in the yellow dress could win. She was beautiful, but significantly shorter than her partner. She was much shorter than all the other girls. And, even for a short person, she had really short legs. Shorter than you would expect for someone of that height. Certainly too short to carry her around the dance floor with the same speed and ease as the others. That's what I thought and I was wrong. She was fantastic. She must have been working twice as hard as everyone else, but you would never have known it. She looked like a fairy out there, just floating along like a wish blown through dandelion fluff.

The next surprise of the evening was even better.

Back when I had been craning my next to see what was happening behind me, I noticed a small sad-looking person sitting all alone. She was curled up on the hard plastic seat like a lost puppy. She looked exhausted, and cold. Her hair was pulled back tight like maybe she didn't bother to comb it after getting it wet, but just pushed it flat to her head. She had too much make-up on. It was smudged and gave the impression of dark bluish caves swallowing her eyes. Worst of all, she was dressed in a baggy gray sweatshirt that fell off one shoulder. She didn't see to be wearing much of anything at all underneath. Whatever it was seemed to be falling apart in shreds. Looking at her, I thought about that Hans Christian Anderson story, "The Little Matchgirl." I mean, she didn't look like she was about to join her dead grandmother or anything. But, she looked like she could have played the part convincingly.

I tried to forget about her while I turned my attention to the glamorous dancers on stage. They were certainly a lot more pleasing to look at. And when they were done, it was time for a solo performance from the best dancers we had seen yet!

They were incredible! Sexy and fun, with fast footwork and beautiful bodies. I could not take my eyes off them. Especially the girl.

She had a real 1940's look about her, with her curvy little figure, heart-shaped face and perfect pink bow of a mouth. She danced like a snake, or a fox, or a leopard. Think of every animal you know that embodies speed and grace and flexibility, combine them all in one human body, set it to Latin music and you will have some idea of how she moved.

And her outfit! Oh my goodness, if you can even call it that. I mean, it seemed to fit...and it sure let a lot of her body hang out. So, I guess that's as good a word as any to describe it. But, I certainly wouldn't call it a dress. It was more like an assortment of sparkling black scarves, carefully arranged to look like they might be falling off at any moment. I usually wouldn't approve of such a costume, but somehow she made it work. It was unnerving to watch her. I felt like I never knew which part of her skin was going to be showing through next. But it was unnerving in a way that just added to the excitement, suspense and surprise of their flawlessly executed routine. And she embodied such a perfect balance between being fit and well-fed, that I didn't mind getting peeks at her lower back, waist and thighs.



She just looked too healthy and vibrant to ever look obscene, or trashy, or cheap.

Or pitiful.

Except, of course. When she wasn't dancing!

That's right. If you haven't guessed already, this was the Little Matchgirl who had been sitting behind me!


I guess she had just been saving up her energy for her big performance. And boy am I glad she did. She, and her partner, were absolutely FABULOUS.


I guess she wasn't The Little Matchgirl after all. She was The Ugly Duckling who turned out to really be a swan.

On the Chinese Calendar, we just entered the year of the Golden Rabbit. According to tradition, this is a year for catching our breath and calming our nerves. For those of us who feel like we've been huddling in a corner, or have been wishing we could, this might be the year we get the rest we need...so we'll be able to hit the dance floor like the swans we really are.