As I watched couples dance the Bachata in the Cambridge Square, I wondered, when have I danced carefree like this last? At a friend’s 40th birthday house party, a friend I don’t hang out with anymore for reasons I won’t get into here. But then, too, I danced alone or in a circle of friends. When I was married, my rhythm and my ex’s was ill-matched; I moved front and back when he moved left and right. But we still tried and danced at parties into the night. Never at an open square, though.
These couples, however, are in a tit-for-tat rhythm, even though some of them are potentially not “real” couples but merely dance partners. The women swing their hips, and the men lead gregariously. And the women follow, something independent women like me find harder to master after having led our lives for so long. Maybe it was my inability to follow that disguised itself as an ill-matched rhythm, who knows?
If you’ve been a part of a long-term relationship for over a decade, you think there are no couple firsts left for you. But dancing in a square (in matched rhythm) is still left. Once you find one first, you’ll find many more. Reading in a park, sleeping under the stars, and sometimes, “following” someone you trust.
