dancing wall

There was a festival in the square downtown, yesterday, and I headed over there after work. Three of my friends were a bottle deep into the wine.

One person left and two more arrived. 

There was more wine. I don't like wine much, but the next three bottles were prosecco, and I can do sparkly wine.

"I'm so excited to see you out having fun!" V. said. (I have been mayyyy-be a little stressed since I moved back here. Also I don't often drink, and I think by having fun she really meant partaking of the vino.) 

The one guy in the group had stepped away when a middle-aged man came by and said, "My band is going to be on at nine, and you girls have to come dance down by the stage. Here, let me take a photo with you to send to my friends to show them the beautiful ladies so they will hurry up and get here."

We weren't quite sure what to expect of the band, but when they came on, they played danceable Italian songs and danceable American classics and danceable Euro-pop and we did, in fact, go down into the middle of the square and dance for over an hour. 

Every now and again one of us would get drawn into the conga line, or a random person would grab our arm and prance in a circle, or a Saudi student would leave his friends to show us a footwork pattern that we never could quite replicate.

Every now and again we would all stop to watch one of those couples who really know what they are doing as they sashayed across the bricks.

From across the floor, I watched a girl dance with a man. She seemed to be done, but he wouldn't let her go. He pulled her back again and again.

"I don't like what's going on with that guy in the pink shirt," I told V. "He won't let go of the girl in the green dress."

I wasn't sure what to do, but V. is a dance floor expert. We went over just as the girl's friends were prying her out of the guy's grasp, and V. and I turned our backs to him and made a dancing wall between him and the girl. "Are you okay?" V. asked, and the girl said, "That was scary!"

Once the girl's group had moved away from the guy, we went back to our own people, to dance until the music ended.