It’s Week 10 of the Boca Ballroom Diary and I am here to say this has been a great week so far. How, you say, can that be? Between Fotis the Terrible raising your reps (and the weights) and James telling you to MOVE YOUR FEET, how can any of this be good?
It’s good because last night I showed up at practice and two of my fellow contestants were there and I got see their routines and they saw mine and there was a lot of laughing and missed steps and sliding around rail-thin dance instructors like they were parking stanchions. Robyn Nassetta is gorgeous, sexy and when she dances with Ivan, smoke starts curling off the floor. And I found out that I like her, despite all of that. Gary Collins (above) had me jumping up and down clapping. I remember our first class when he struggled gamely on, but was disconcerted. You should see him now. Wowza. As for me, I made it through our routine in what I would describe as a halting gallop, narrowly missing a right hook to James, but we press on, like the good soldiers we are. I realized last night how much I missed my classmates (even Slick Tony) and wish we could have all been there. It made all of this fun, not onerous. It made me remember why we are there.
The George Snow Scholarship Fund is asking a lot of all of us in every way—but then it asks a lot of the students it serves. It rewards kids who work hard regardless of their circumstances—often dysfunctional families or dire poverty or care giving demands or language barriers or medical problems. It reaches into homes from Boca to Belle Glade and pulls out those children whose desire to succeed trumps whatever problems they face. It gives them a chance to transcend those issues and go to college. To be the person they dream of being. It’s a big job to decide to be successful; these kids take it on.
So maybe our little 90-second dance routines aren’t so very difficult, after all. It’s a big job to get a George Snow Scholarship. Maybe a little cha cha cha will help more kids get a chance to take on that job.
As for the big event August 16, I hear there are fewer than 50 tickets left; get yours now if you want to go! Visit bocaballroombattle.com
