lindy flop

Technically I should have been a natural at the new hobby I decided to try recently.

After all as a youngster I’d received certificates for doing just such a pastime, in fact I’d even appeared on stage at the central theatre in one of the company’s annual shows doing something similar and as far as I was concerned I had at least a reasonable sense of timing that should have meant it wouldn’t take me too long to pick things up as I went along.

However it soon became obvious as the Lindy Hop for beginners class at Rochester’s Dance Junction that I’d decided to attend began that maybe I’d been a little presumptuous in the rating of my own dancing ability.

You see as I’ve previously mentioned in this column I’m fairly nimble on my feet when flying solo on the dance floor , it’s just that once another body is thrown into that equation and starts cluttering up my personal space that problems arise and the whole thing becomes a bit of a recipe for disaster.

I lost count of the number of gentlemen’s toes I must have trodden on as we rotated in a circle, changing partners as we went and eventually took to starting every new partnership with “I’m sorry for what is about to happen “just so the next victim knew what they were letting themselves in for as I tried to master the simple routine of rock step, triple, triple.

Gutted though I was by the end that I wasn’t going to be a dead cert for winning finalist on the next series of Strictly, I’m not going to let the discovery that I do indeed suffer from that very tragic ailment “two left feet” get me down and I’m going to give it another couple of attempts before I decide that maybe the population of Medway’s tootsies are better off if I hang up my boogie woogie swing dance shoes forever.

That said I would suggest however if you’re a male pondering over whether you’d like to join this particular class, looking into if there is such a thing as steel toe capped dance footwear.