Quite a exciting title I have for this blog of mine. It was a cold night on the September the 18th when I and my classmate decided to join the fresher's party at the Tevion debating hall at the Student Union. We were late for the party as we had some shopping to do.
As usual, we had trouble finding the place and we landed somewhere else. We still don't know which party we went to. But it was fun. It was a dance night at the student union. As usual, we were very shy to start with. With me being the experienced guy, I started asking girls to dance with me. I was a big flop as I went for a safer option of asking some girls looking like Indians. They showed that they are Indians and declined it.
What a great thing that turned out to be. Please note here all the dances were pure Scottish traditional dance. It was a dance where four girls and guys dance together. To our surprise, we joined a group of six girls and had fun dancing the group dance where we swing around and go around other pairs. It was a quite an ok dance number to start with.
There was a big break after the first dance as we started anxiously waiting as to whom to ask for to partner us for our next dance. Emma … she was smart, beautiful and nicely dressed. My first thought about her was that she will never dance with me. She proved me wrong as she asked my classmate to dance with her. I was surprised and I gathered myself fast to ask her friend to dance with me and it all worked.
This dance was an ice on the cake as it involves dancing with ur partner and changing the partner as we go along. Quite against our expectations we danced with some 50 odd girls. I mean dancing like a couple. With people forming rings, the girls go in first in to the rings and then the guys and when the guys come back they have to find a new partner to dance with. It was the ice breaker.
That was easy and I knew that for the next dance I can ask Emma to dance with me. To my surprise, she was there near me and she agreed. The next dance involves group of 4 couples with each couple doing a routine of running across and swinging around the other couples. The boys and the girls have to go around each other after each couple dances. Emma taught me all the steps and I took to it like a fish in a pond. Its no exaggeration that I danced very well with her. I came to know her liking to swing around wild and I singed around well. I usually felt déjà vu after swinging with her, even though she was quite normal.
The next dance that followed, she warned me that it's quite energetic and can I do it. I told her that I can manage and away we went. It's called the "cocktail" or something and involved swinging with our backs against each other and then dancing the traditional Scottish way. I was tired and there was a 10 minutes break right after that.
Next dance was for groups of four and all groups have to form a row. There was a swinging and clapping steps followed by four of us running across the rows with hands together. I danced with Catherine. She was Emma's friend. My friend danced with Emma.
Next dance was the most exciting of all as we had to form groups of 4 couples and involved swinging around, dancing across and then lifting the girls and swinging them around. Emma was not with me in the group, but she quickly pulled me to her side and I was dancing with her. I really liked it. Lifting the girls was very hard and we fell the first time, second time my glass fell. Emma advised me no to do it fast and do it only 3 times. So that was really fun, lifting girls and swinging around.
I was very excited when a girl asked me to dance with her for the final dance of the night. She was Alice and she was very nervous. I was very relaxed as if I can dance anything. It involves swinging around in chains. All the boys stood on one side and girls stood on the other side and we have to swing across with all the people as we dance along. It was quite a hard work.
It was all over, a night to remember. I went to Emma and her friends and thanked her for dancing with me. They appreciated that I had good timing and Emma was quick to say that "That swinging was very good". I exactly knew what she meant.
Emma … I shall never forget that name.
Few Photos of the ball! http://picasaweb.google.com/karthee.sivalingam/FresherWeekBall?authkey=Gv1sRgCMyi3ITuscDtBA#
