Shuffle, Ball Change at Fifty

I took ballet as a little girl for exactly one year, and then quit because I was embarrassed. At fifty, I saw a flyer for an adult beginner tap class at the community center and signed up before I could talk myself out of it.

There were eight of us: a nurse, a retired firefighter, a pair of sisters in their seventies and a few others. Our teacher was a former Broadway chorus dancer who called everyone "darling."

The first class, I couldn't tell my shuffle from my flap. I kept going the wrong way. But the noise of it, eight pairs of metal taps clattering on the wooden floor, made me grin like a fool.

By May, we performed in the community center's spring recital. We danced to "Singin' in the Rain" with umbrellas. One of the sisters lost her umbrella mid-routine. The firefighter caught it without missing a step. The audience went wild.

My husband filmed the whole thing. I've watched it about thirty times.