1975

Modern Dance

I really liked taking modern dance class and after taking several sessions of class with Bonnie through Santa Fe Junior College, at Wendy’s suggestion, I started taking modern dance classes at local dance studio from a dance teacher named Nina.  I was quite serious and focused on the dance lessons and didn’t realize that I was causing quite a stir among the girl dancers.  I was the only guy in class of a dozen or so girls.  At six foot two, weighing 175 pounds, 32 inch waist, shoulder length hair, and dressed in leotards that were skintight, I begin to draw attention of some of the girls. Although I begin to notice some of the girls looking at me, I didn’t pay much notice until one day after class I was talking to one of the girls who happened to be the daughter of the dance studio, when she stands on her tip toes, she was short, reaches up, puts her hand on the back of my neck and pulls my head down to her and she kisses me full on the lips.  I pull back in surprise, blushing, stammer something, and after an uncomfortable minute or two of conversation I excuse myself and left.   The girl was attractive, but short and a little stocky, the girl I was more interested in was Cathy, who was tall, thin, and very attractive.   I continued taking modern dance classes there but avoided the owner’s daughter.

A Dance Performance

Over the following months I learned there was a modern dance troupe in Gainesville that was led by Nina which Wendy, Melody and several of the girls from the dance studio were part of.  In the fall I learned the dance troupe was giving a performance at a performing art center down in West Palm Beach.  I had been taking dance classes about a year by that time, two classes a  week in the latter months so Windy asked if I would be interested in being in one of the dances.  I thought about it but said no, I didn’t think I was ready to go on stage in front of people.  Wendy accepted this but suggested I could go with the dance troupe as stagehand.  I didn’t know what a stagehand did and Windy explained I would just help out with whatever was needed so I agreed.

The performance was on a Saturday night so I drove down to West Palm Beach in my new Chevy van and arrived at the performance center where I found the dance troupe.  There were about eight girls most of I had met before include Nina, Windy, the dance studio owner’s daughter, the girl I was attracted to and there were three boys I hadn’t met.  I really had nothing to do as a “stage hand”, there were no sets or props like a play might have, so I just stood at the side of the stage and watched the troupe practice their dances, with Nina, as the main teacher and troupe leader making suggestions and last minute changes to the dances.   Dance, as I learned, was not easy, it was quite physically demanding, requiring strength, balance and endurance in addition to grace of movement while the dancers making appear effortless to the audience.  I was standing there at the side of the stage when Windy, after practicing one of the dances she was in, walked over to me.  She was beautiful, dressed in her leotards showing every curve of her body, her skin glistening in sweat, she walks up to me and says hello and we talk a minute.  But the thing I remember most about it was how she smelled, she smelled earthy, she smelled, well like she just had sex but I knew she had not for her husband didn’t come on the trip.  It was like she had an organism from the dance.  My nostrils flared, I took in her scent, I wanted so much to pull her close to me and kiss her but of course I could not. 

The practiced finished up that afternoon and with the performance was at seven o’clock, the troupe went to a nearby hotel where they had several rooms, two or three for the girls and one for the guys including me.   An hour before the performance, with all the performers cleaned up, and changed into their costumes, we returned to the performance center and gathered at the back of the stage.  As the time of the performance approached, me and others would peek out from behind the curtain and see that the center was filling up.   Then finally time came, introductions were made, and the performance began and went smoothly.  With nothing to do, I got a unique perspective of watching the performance from the side of the stage and seeing the behind the scenes action of the dancers. 

After the performance the dancers remained for a while talking to some of the patrons of the performance center and they everyone returned back to the hotel where we all gathered in one of the rooms, ordered pizza and begin to party.  As the party progressed and everyone having a few drinks, my attention turned to Cathy who was showing considerable attention to me which I enjoyed.  The other girls were all talking, the three boys off to one side talking, and well I thought I saw on kiss one of the other boys.  Perhaps not, I turned my attention back to Cathy when around 11 o’clock Cathy said she was getting tired and asked if I would walk her back to her room.  Well of course I said yes, I was also getting tired and didn’t care much for such parties anyway so I walk out the door with Cathy and walk her back to her room.  She pauses at the door, unlocks it and then turns to me and asks if I want to come in for a while, I say yes and follow her in.  The room was kind of a mess, there were four or five of the girls staying in the same room and there were suitcases and clothes all about the room.  She cleared a spot on the couch and we sit down and talk for a while have a nice conversation.  Yeah, I had other things in mind than talk, but I never made an advance on a girl before and she didn’t seem to be moving any closer to me so after forty-five minutes or so I said it was getting late and I should be getting to bed and she showed me out the door.

I left her room and walked across the courtyard to the “boys” room and entered finding it empty, the other boys were still partying.  They had already told me that I could sleep on the couch, so laid on the couch with a blanket and pillow to go to sleep.  I was about to fall asleep when the door opens and the other three boys returned, apparently a little drunk, and they prepared for bed.  Now there was only one king-sized bed for the three of them, but I didn’t see what arrangements they made for I was lying on my side with my back to them.  After a bit the light turns off and the sounds turned on, I wasn’t sure what they were doing on the bed, I didn’t want to know, I pulled the pillow over my head and eventually fell asleep.   I woke up early the next morning seeing the three of them half naked on the bed together, so I packed my bag and was out of the room before they woke up.

On the drive home I reflected upon the past couple of days and thought it odd that no other girls returned to the room while I was there with her. The other people in the room saw us leave together, I think they might have been staying away expecting something may happen.  One of those could’ve, should’ve, would’ve moments I let slip past.  As to the boys in bed that night, I wasn’t sure what to make of it, it didn’t interest me at all.  I would have rather been one of the girls sleeping together that night.