Everybody Dance Now!

That's my lovely wife and I, sitting at the Tacoma Dome today.

Why would we do such a thing on an otherwise productive Saturday afternoon?

Because today was the 2008 Tacoma Area Dance Festival, of course!

Now this Dance Festival was a HUGE and PLEASANT surprise to me.

I had taken part in a dance festival (note the lack of capital letters) back in 1983, when I was 14... and I don't recall loving it. I mean, when I think back in the context of "how did I feel about this at the time?" the answer I repeatedly get is something along the lines of "HELP!! GET ME OUT OF THIS HIDEOUSLY FLOWING SATIN OUTFIT!!!" In fact, I don't remember many details of that dance festival. I remember that it was at the Seattle Coliseum (now Key Arena) and that I DID think it was kinda cool to be down on the floor there... not cool enough to justify the completely heinous outfits they put us in, but pretty cool.

The only other thing I remember, as you might have guessed, was the hideous satin outfit. Something like a smock, or a poncho... Yellows and oranges, maybe some red... Kinda like GayBatMan's cape would be, if BatMan wasn't such an unbelievable stud, and wore something like that. I think that thing was so bad, that it's the reason I can't remember anything else.

When we were in line today, waiting to get into the Dome, I wound up next to someone who had also been in that '83 df. He was older than me; said he was 18 at the time... And he remembered the awfulness as well, but it didn't obliterate his other memories. He said we did something Star Wars related. Now, to a teenage boy in 1983, something Star Wars related would be extremely cool! But I am being 100% honest when I say that even with his prompting, I have no memory. It's truly blacked out. Ugh. I'd say I need therapy to work through that long dormant memory, but hey, that's what blogs are for, right? Okay.. Therapy's over... Resume review of 2008 Dance Festival. (complete with capital letters!)

So... I'm sure PART of what made this one so much better - even good and/or cool on its own, is that the popular culture of the last few years has brought musicals and their singing, dancing ways back into vogue. So there was a rich library of material to draw from, and whoever was the music director for this DF did a great job!

High School Musical and Hairspray were represented, as were timely tunes and the dances that went with them, from eras spanning from the Pioneer Days to now, with stops in most of the decades from the Roaring '20s onward.

And because "Star Wars" in the 21st Century brings more groans than cheers, the favorite pop culture moment of the DF was "Canned Heat" as performed in Napoleon Dynamite. And it was performed very well, by a troupe of kids wearing jeans and T-Shirts that looked like "Vote for Pedro" only it looked like they said something different. We couldn't actually tell though, because we were seated at the opposite end of the T'Dome. So if anyone knows what they actually said, Comments are for Enlightenment!

While we didn't have any of our own kids in the Festival, we did have a niece and nephew, both younger siblings to Alicia. We spotted them both, with Rachel swing dancing to "In The Mood" and Kevin singing in the Youth Choir, which DEFINITELY deserves to receive capital letters. They really, REALLY sounded great.

The finale of the show was the HSM (that's High School Musical to you who don't have tweens) classic, "We're All In This Together." And it was sung by the Youth Choir over a karaoke track, while the floor was filled with over 2,000 energetic young people.

When it was done, the lights came on, and we re-emerged into the light of the afternoon. We had taken our Missionaries out to lunch at the Funky Iguana before the DF, then parked at my office and took the free light rail down to the T'Dome. While getting on the train to go back afterwards, right as the train was pulling away, this kid on a BMX trick-bike rode by, waving frantically at the Missionaries. They didn't really know what was going on, so they just smiled and waved.

And it started.

The kid on the bike appeared VERY excited, and took off after the train! When the first stop came, he ALMOST made it on, but was about 10 seconds (maybe even only 5) late, and we were pulling off again. My office is on the last stop the train makes, and this kid kept up the entire way, despite traffic, pedestrians, hills, and the fact that he was on a one-gear bike and we were in an electric train! When we finally got out of the train, we decided we had to at least congratulate him on an excellent chase.

Turned out the kid was quite a bit older than he looked with his Captain America Stars 'n' Stripes helmet on... He was also deaf, but spoke volumes with hand motions and a few carefully spoken words. He told the Missionaries that he has a "friend who is Mormon!" and that he rides the route he chased us on "50 times a day, FAST!"

He followed that by telling us that he doesn't smoke, because it would kill his lungs and he wouldn't be able to ride "50 times, FAST!" if his lungs were killed. We couldn't really tell if he actually wanted something - but it really appeared that he just wanted to say hi to the Missionaries! They gave him a card with their contact info, and he rode off back toward the Dome while we walked to the van and drove home... All the while laughing at the whole chase aspect of our train ride!

...and the train conductor was obviously aware of the chase as well - Chelsey pointed out that ever since the first stop, where the bikerkid almost made it on to the train, the doors were closing much more quickly at each stop, and the stops were a heck of a lot briefer than the first one had been...

We topped off the day with a trip to Costco, who had a great deal on Strawberries... So I made 15 pints of Strawberry Jam! Woo HOOO!! Goooooood Stuff!