Dancing With The World

I'm dancing in front of my computer or rather, I'm trying to dance but the particular dance I'm trying to learn has a very complicated set of steps with, oh dread! Several turns. I don't get it. The instructor, Ira Weisburd, who has the patience of a saint, goes through the steps slowly but I'm still confused.

"I don't understand," I write in the chat room. "Is anyone else having a problem, or is it just me?" The answers, from all over the world, come quickly.

Sonya from Switzerland says she loves the music but can't get the steps either, Rhoda from London encourages me to keep trying, Lou from Malaysia explains a modified way to do the routine and Diane, Ira's wife and dance partner, assures us that he will go over the steps again. He does and finally, hurrah! I get it. Well, I get it enough to muddle through the entire dance.

Every Tuesday morning Ira teaches a two-hour, virtual line dance class on Youtube. He has other classes on other days (Israeli dancing, folk dancing) and has been doing them virtually since March of 2020 when the pandemic put an end to all in-person classes. Ira is a world renowned choreographer as well as a teacher and his classes have been a life-saver to line dancers all over the world who, like me, need their "line dance fix" weekly. The classes are posted on YouTube so, not only can dancers take the class on Tuesday morning, but they can go back and review them anytime. An added bonus is that people all over the United States, I mean all over the world participate and communicate through the chat room.

Ira and Diane greet everyone by name and location as they sign into the chat, no small thing because there are always over one hundred people checking in. It's amazing. I'm dancing in my living room in Hollywood Fl, and someone in Indonesia and someone else in Toronto and someone else in Bermuda is doing the same exact thing. I think about these people and try to picture them. I wonder if they cheat like I do sometimes and don't do all the turns or if they sit down halfway through the dance to rest or if they talk back to Ira as if he could hear them. The world seems very friendly, very small and connected. I feel like I have friends all over the world because of line dancing. In-person classes will, hopefully, be starting again soon but, until they do and even after they do, I'll keep dancing with the world every Tuesday.

Class Information
HYBRID DANCE CLASSES (Simultaneous Virtual & In-Person) Starting in October
@ Kings Point Delray Beach, 7000 West Atlantic Avenue
Tuesday mornings: NULINE DANCE (10:30am – 12:30pm)
www.youtube.com/user/iraweisburd
Virtual Classes are Complimentary.
Donations are appreciated at: www.paypal.me/dancewithira