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My Revolution

“Revolution is a serious thing, the most serious thing about a revolutionary’s life. When one commits oneself to the struggle, it must be for a lifetime.”

Angela Davis (Black Panthers)

My life has been a violent revolution from the very beginning.

I am told that I emerged from my mother’s womb kicking and screaming, and that I looked like Mr. Magoo.

I have thought a lot about these initial movements of my life, and I believe they echo the purpose of my life.

To conduct in no uncertain terms a “Dance” Revolution

Immediately following my birth there is much evidence in the form of 8mm film to support the genesis of my revolution.

I was a budding dance prodigy full of charisma and promise…

New dance manovers were invented daily… like…
“The Cookie Monster”
And
“The He-Man”
And
“The go-go gadget Dancetron”

…up until the 3rd grade.

In the third grade I became self aware and self conscious.

This new preoccupation with myself stunted my creativity and the revolution.

This stifling of the dance continued through grade school, into high school, and followed me all the way into college.

Perhaps by some twisted self imposed masochism, I picked a college that for all practical purposes had out lawed dancing.

Cedarville was a Christian Liberal Arts college located in the middle of a corn field.

Liberal Arts may be a bit of a misnomer, they were certainly not liberal and they most certainly did not have a liberal policy when it came to the art of dancing.

Its not their fault though… they’re Baptist…

Quick side note, “Do you know why Baptists do not have sex standing up?”

Someone might think they were dancing…

So anyway, the call of the dance started to catch up with me in the middle of college.

I found myself watching “Foot Loose” over and over again….

I soon came to an impasse, I would have to rebel… either I would start playing chicken with combine tractors in the corn fields or we would dance.

We chose the latter.

I say we, because I was no longer alone… whilst in the middle of the mechanical engineering program I had bonded with several other revolutionaries.

The revolution had begun, we soon found ourselves on the late hours of the evening (yet before the midnight curfew) at places like…

• The Inferno
• The Dance Pit
• Transomatic Groove Station
• The Starlight Dance Club
• O’K Buckaroo Dance Coral

I enjoyed complete uninhibited dance freedom for the first time in my adult life.

Inspiration was plentiful and personal experimentation was encouraged.

I discovered my own cornucopia of dance invention and improvisation.
I invented new moves nightly
The Elephant
El Telephono

And I revisited the classics with my own twist of creativity
The Sprinkler
The lawnmower
The Air Traffic Controller

Being new to the dance scene and still reeling from the intoxication of unbridled dance euphoria… I would often times commit small dance infractions of etiquette.

For instance, while at the OK Buckaro Dance Coral in Maumee Ohio, I would sometimes work my way unknowingly into the line dance area.

Often times my maneuvers would be accommodated by other dancers, but sometimes they were too powerful to coexist peacefully.

On one occasion I remember an imposing figure approached me in a Mesh midriff complete with raddling spurs and kindly informed me that I was a “Free Style” dancer he then escorted me to the freestyle area…

… which happened to be right next to the mechanical bull. Here the necessity of hanging on for dear life served as the mother of invention for a whole new collection of dance maneuvers… I now refer to as Slow Mo Torro…

As college winded down I began to believe that my jubilee of dance invention had come to an end. Soon I would be separated from my dance community and thrown into corporate America to wither away…

… this was not the case…

All of my friends from college got married, and I found myself summoning the dancer within on an almost monthly basis. Over the past 8 years I have slowly refined and filtered my dance maneuvers into three main categories.

Bring the Hot Stuff
Sirmixalot, Guns and Roses, Aerosmith, Loverboy

Simmer it Down
Poison, Elton John, Air Supply, Stevie Wonder

Slow and Slinky
Prince, Frank Sinatra, Dion Warwick

Ok, so the styles are not all that different at the outset… but once I get into it they really come into their own.

At thirty years old, you may say “Shane, when will the revolution be over” … and that is when I have to admit that I have not really accomplished anything yet and there are always new horizons of exploration…

In fact, a new territory may have opened up for me just last month. I was at a club doing my thing in front of a band called “My Dear Disco”… I really thought I was brining it down to a cover of “Thriller”… and then one of my friends asked me afterwards…

“So when are you going to start dancing?”
“I mean this show you are putting on is fun to watch… but what does it look like for you to just dance?”

In my moment of dance savant pride, I was touched by her honesty.

“Have I allowed my skills to be commercialized for mass consumption?”
“ Do I dance for the pure enjoyment anymore… or is it out of a sense of duty because I am so skilled?”

Perhaps it is time to reinvent perfection… the struggle goes on… the struggle goes on…

Categories: Toast Masters