a regular fred & ginger

for our First Dance as husband and wife, Michael and i chose (OK, i chose) "It Had to Be You." if you know us and you know the song, you know why it fits. it also figured pretty prominently into When Harry Met Sally... which, along with Who's the Boss, largely shaped my idea of love and relationships during my formative years. (and, when you think about it, my current relationship is sort of a mélange of those two pop culture phenomena. freaky.)

anyway, we only get one First Dance and i couldn't imagine us just swaying back and forth for three minutes, especially to a classic like "It Had to Be You." it just calls for something a little more special.

but, since Michael and i are not fans of Dancing With the Stars nor would we last two minutes on such a show, we needed some assistance.

a.k.a. dance lessons.

to his credit, Michael did not put up a fight. in fact, he was fairly game. (husband-of-the-year-in-training.) i set up a trial lesson at a dance studio i found online that seemed promising. our teacher was a fellow named Peter and, via e-mail, he seemed promising.

ten minutes before the lesson was to begin, Michael and i were standing on the sidewalk outside the building—we were both nervous and jittery. i had no idea what to expect and was slightly dismayed when we stepped of the elevator into a rather chaotic scene. when i "checked in" at the front desk i was told, "oh, yeah, Peter—i saw him, he's around. he'll find you guys."

right. there were wide windows along the wall, offering a view of large studios in which a wide array of couples were dancing. it was overwhelming, even for me—and i spent the first half of my life immersed in theater. i could only imagine what was flying through Michael's head as he took in the scene, but he just smiled and fidgeted and refrained from comment.

finally Peter approached us and i was taken aback. totally close-minded of me, but i expected some sleek, fit, well-put-together guy—a Broadway gypsy, maybe, trying to pay the bills. but Peter... well, he reminded me of Will Ferrell's impression of Harry Caray. he just had a disheveled, somewhat incongruous quality to him that didn't exactly convey "dance instructor."

but, hell, we were there and the trial was only half the price of a regular lesson. so off we went. Peter taught us five dances in sixty minutes in a room full of couples all being instructed by different teachers. the music in the room changed approximately every three minutes and it never matched the dance we were learning. for example, salsa music played as we were trying to master the foxtrot. once we moved onto salsa, Frank Sinatra blared from the speakers.

needless to say, by the end of the hour i had a raging headache. i thanked Peter profusely and the next day got online to find a new studio. and that i did—one that puts only one couple in a studio at a time. the pictures on the website looked so serene compared to Peter's studio and after a few e-mails with a staff member, i was sold.

last night was our first lesson at the new place and i think we were both even more nervous and apprehensive than the last time but, oh—what a difference. our instructor, Leslie, bore no resemblance to Harry Caray. she spent the first ten minutes of the lesson getting to know us, how we met, what our wedding would be like, and what we were looking for. that broke the ice and when she finally got us on the floor, in front of the mirror, we were—well, if not completely at ease, at least forty percent of the way there.

we danced only to our song and in a shockingly short time we mastered the basic box step of the foxtrot (some of what Peter taught us came right back, so he wasn't all bad), how to rotate while doing the box step and then how to move from the box step to a twirl (well, i do the twirling) back into the box step!

we were wildly impressed with ourselves.

we have five more lessons to get a whole dance together and i have utter faith in Leslie (and in us) that it'll be awesome.

and the cherry on top of our lovely evening last night was the discovery as we headed to the F train that the dance studio is actually right in the shadow of the Empire State Building. how appropriate.

mb