Dancing, Flirting, Bellies and Redheads

I have been taking belly dancing lessons.  It was a terrifiying prospect for a girl with as many wibbly bits as I have, but ‘Sephone persuaded me to give it a go, by promising to be just as graceless as myself.  For the first couple of weeks, yes, we were graceless.  And we were in the excellent company of these slender, graceful teenagers who’s been studying ballet since the age of 4, and so knew how to move their bodies.  We stuck in there mostly because the tutor was such a beautiful, kind, non-judgemental women.  She always encouraged and never made us feel stupid.  Then one week, it just clicked.  Everything fell into place and I could shimmy my hips, move my shoulders, and shake my booty with the best of them.  And the weirdest thing happened – ‘Sephone and I, with our hips and bosoms and wibbly bits looked a whole lot better belly dancing than the tenny little teenagers.  Belly dancing is about bellies, after all.  It’s a luscious dance, and it seems to work best with luscious bodies.

If you happen to be a girl on the lush side, I totally recommend belly dancing to celebrate this fact 🙂

It all came in very useful on Friday.  Salmonella Dub was in town, a beautiful kiwi trip-hop outfit who I really wanted to see, especially once Mare discovered that Athena the Foxy Redhead was also going to be there.  Wow, she’s stunning and Mare and ‘Sephone are convinced that she and I would make an excellent couple.  And, yes, I’d love the chance to find out, except that every time I’d gotten within 20ft of her I seemed to lose the use of my tongue.  This has never happened to me before.  I mean, where girls are concerned I’ve never exactly been the smoothest operator, but I’ve generally been able to form syllables.  Not with Athena. 

Anyway, that wasn’t the problem with going to Salmonella Dub.  The problem was lack of finances, which was all very sad.  But then on Thursday Mare rang me and said “sort out your glad rags, ‘Sephone and I have an early birthday present for you.”  A ticket to Salmonella Dub!  Not only that, but Mare being the most amazing networker had organized for her and I to meet up with Athena and her friend. 

My outfit came together perfectly, and I even wore some make-up, which is amazing for me!  I was going to describe what I wore, but I realised it would be impossible.  So, ever resourceful, I drew it instead 🙂

Thus dressed, off I went with Mare to meet Athena and her friend Kat at the poolhall which serves as the hub of all lesbian activity in this town.  I managed to smile at Athena, and I think I even said hi, but that was it.  Fortunately we ran into Ree and Tarns, and I managed to talk to Ree (who is after all one of my best friends) so I didn’t completely seem like a munchkin.  After a couple of beers, we went off to the concert.  In was in this little club, totally packed out, beautiful.  We were squished into the middle – Mare was between Athena and I and it was too loud to talk anyway, so no pressure.

Salmonella Dub went off.  It was an amazing, tranceful, rocking concert.  And somehow with all the dancing and crowdedness, it ended up with Athena and I dancing together and Mare and Kat at opposite ends of the club.  So I was shimmying my hips and putting my moves into action, which was an amazing enough feeling.  Moving to a rhythm seemed like a big achievement to me!  And Athena dancing right there with me.  I can’t tell you how grateful I was for the belly dancing lessons right then, because my previous dancing style was the “shy 13-year old at a school disco”.  Yeah, the rhythmless shuffle.  We danced blisters onto our feet and screamed ourselves almost voiceless by the end of the concert, and afterwards stumbled out of the club and into the poolhall.  On a high from the concert, there suddenly seemed to be a lot to talk about.  Because right away, there is the obligatory “wow, that so rocked!” “Oh my god, didn’t it?  Especially Bromley East Rollers, I love that song” etc.  And after that, the silence was broken and there seemed to be a lot of other things to say.  Mare and Kat were there as well, of course, and we found Ree and Tarns again, along with a whole lot of other people.  But Athena and I just talked mostly between ourselves.  We stayed at the poolhall after most of everyone else had left just talking and I swear flirting.  At one point we were leaning against each other (shoulder to shoulder, get your minds out of the gutter!), and I wasn’t even sure how it had happened.  So very nice.

When I eventually left, I couldn’t stop smiling.  I walked down the road grinning like an idiot.