When I lived in the small city of Winnipeg, I used to say that I could stand on any street corner for an hour and someone I knew would pass by. But who knew that could happen here in the city where you can see palm trees and snow from the same vantage point. Granted, the snow is at the top of the mountains, but still...The world is full of the most amazing coincidences and I experienced one today.
Those of you who know me will know how much I enjoy my dance classes. I started ballet classes when I was about ten, and throughout my teenage years I took ballet, jazz and tap dancing classes. From about age 15 to about 19 I aspired to be a professional dancer. But it was not to be. I met the love of my life, my husband, Dennis, and not for one second did I ever regret giving up my dream and moving to Winnipeg to be with him. Right about now, most of you are thinking, right, but what does that have to do with amazing coincidence. Be patient, I'm getting there.
Off and on through my adult life I took dance classes. (See picture above from 1977)
I took jazz dance classes right up until my seventh month of pregnancy. So, my darling daughter, I danced you into life. In recent years I have taken hip hop dance classes and I have enjoyed them tremendously. Some of my readers have seen the video of my friend Deborah and I doing our hip hop routine. I am not a great dancer, never have been, but I think I am pretty good for a soon-to-be-sixty-year-old. Dance class was a form of therapy that helped me cope with the grief of losing my love, my husband. Dancing gets the endorphins flowing, those happy hormones of the natural high.
So it won't be a surprise to learn that I signed up for a set of dance classes. Today I put on my dance clothes, packed my tap shoes in my bag and headed off to the West End Community Centre. The woman at the Information Desk informed me that I was the only registrant for the class. Oh, oh, I thought, looks as if the class might be cancelled. Sure enough, when the instructor showed, she said she would not conduct a class for just one dancer.
Disappointed, I began to negotiate for a refund. Behind me I heard a voice say, "Catherine?!" Then I heard a scream as I turned around. There was petite, dark-haired Lena the hip hop instructor from Winnipeg. Words can't express how happy I was to see her. She was such a good teacher and it is due to her understanding of how I learn best that I was able to do as well as I did with hip hop. I knew that she had been planning to move to Vancouver and I often thought how great it would be to meet up with her here, but Vancouver is a big city and I never thought I would run into her just by chance. After hugs and promises to get together for coffee, we exchanged phone numbers and email addresses. She recommended a dance school downtown.
If I hadn't signed up for a dance class I wouldn't have been in the Community Centre at that precise time. And if the class hadn't been cancelled, I would have been in the auditorium when she went by and we would have missed each other. What a precise sequence of coincidences!
Take care, everyone. Keep dancing.
Dance till the stars come down from the rafters
Dance, Dance, Dance till you drop.
~W.H. Auden
