I was listening to this tape I made a few years ago, and on it was a song that I had my first slow dance to. I remember it so well…
It was back in '93. I was in the seventh grade. It was in Feb. My cousin was having a birthday party in the basement. There was this guy there, Michael Oliver (wouldn’t that be something if by some odd chance he comes to the boards? heh) who I had a huge crush on. My cousin, trying to be helpful, asked him if he would dance with me. He agreed. I didn’t care, I was too excited.
I hear the song start…“If I Ever Fall” by Shai. He comes over and takes my hand. He was wearing an orange striped shirt with jeans, and I was wearing a burgundy hoody also with jeans. He smelled like Coolwater. We danced and I was in heaven. Pathetic I know. I remember staring at his eyebrows because I was too nervous to look him in the eyes.
To this day, whenever I hear that song, or smell that cologne, I am instantly taken back to that night. It’s a nice memory, even though I was crushed later on that night when I saw him dancing with another girl.
Well, mine isn’t as magical a memory as yours. Back in 5th grade is I think when the first dance party occured, and at the time I was still hanging on to the last threads of the “girls are icky” stage. Whenever a slow song would start, my friends and I would run off and hide. Well the DJ got on to us and called us out. I was forced to dance with one of my friends (female). I don’t really remember what it was like, other than “Sigh, why am I being forced to do this? This is so embarassing.”
Of course, all the girls loved dancing, so I ended up with a bunch of other girls that evening. I went home and bragged about how popular I was, and then when the adults complimented me, I of course turned red. Ah, to be young again.
A boy named Danny had a crush on me since 5th grade, he was a year older than me. We hung out in the libary since that was the only time a 7th grader and 8th grader could hang out without the 8th grader getting teased. At the spring dance he wanted to dance with me and I was SO embarassed… I was quite a sheltered and prudish youngster. At one point my friends FORCED me into him and I danced with him. Then it wasn’t so bad, I remember thinking how strong he felt even though he was thin. Not a bad experience at all.
Silvia at a grade 7 or so school dance. It wasn’t anything special because didn’t didn’t like me (but I did her). It was to the “nothing compares to you”.
Ironically only 5 years later I would meet my current GF Silvia (no relation) and get my second real slow dance at a spanish club. THAT dance I remember quite well because it required a lot of very very close body action and had me limping off the dance floor when we were done
9th grade in Heidelberg, Germany (1984). We had a two-day Mock United Nations (MUN) at our school (Heidelberg American High School). We had kids from American and International schools all over Europe. I volunteered to be a secretary; I delivered notes between the delegations.
On the last night, the school hosted a MUN dance. Some kid with a Berlin High School letter jacket asked me to slow dance. To “True” by Spandau Ballet. The LONGEST slow song ever written.
We turned a couple of times, talked a tiny bit, then the guy started licking my neck. I froze. WHAT THE HELL!?!? I hadn’t even kissed a boy yet and this guy was LICKING MY NECK!!!
For some reason, I couldn’t embarrass him by leaving in the middle of the song. But as soon as it was over, I was out of there!
Same situation as so many of you; when I hear that song, I get chills.
This love is tru-ue! This love is tru-u-ue!
I know I know I know this love is true…
Well, while my first ‘good’ slow dance was when I was 18 (The Way You Look Tonight, Sinatra), and I will always treasure it, my -first- slow dance was part of a dance class.
The same man had been teaching 6-8th graders classical dance for about 10 years in our town. He was a tradition, as it were. Taught at the jr. high every other Thursday night. Kids generally hated it (who at that age really wants to learn that stuff? Especially a geeky akward kid…), but the parents saw the teacher as a bastion of morality and decency to instill upon their young 'uns.
Two years after I took the lessons, the guy was busted for home made child pornography.
So much for that idea.
Seventh grade. I can’t remember what song. With a guy I had liked forever and ever. I asked him to dance, which was surprising since back then I was known for this, “HE has to ask ME” policy. But I was also known for my impatience, and nothing was happening and I was sick of waiting. I did see him dancing with his ex-gf later that night, though. And I also heard him tell his brother he only danced with her because she didn’t have anyone else to dance with. All in all, a really confusing night.
I danced my first slow dance the night I turned 6. It was at my adult cousin’s wedding, and I was the flower girl. I danced with the ring bearer, my new cousin (his bride’s son), and he cried because he didn’t know how to slow dance. I don’t remember the song.
8th grade graduation dance. Her name was Emily. She asked me to dance…we stood and swayed for awhile…then she took me out onto the front porch, and laid a big wet kiss on me.
just last year, with my boyfriend on the school trip to williamsburg, it was to i believe DJ Sammy’s Heaven (candlelight) he was standing talking to some of his friends, and when the song started, i looked around trying to find him, and we locked from “across a croweded room” as corny as that may sound and he came over and said “do you wanna?” and i nodded my head and we went out to dance by my best friend and her boyfriend and…yeah, i’ll never forget that.
Grade 8, 1992.
I think it was Micheal Jahn, either him or Dave Chandler. Both of them had this “cool” thing where they’d only put one arm around the girl they were dancing with and let the other one hang down by their side.
I found it so lame. Even back then.
I have no idea what song it was too.
But I do remember dancing with Dave at one of Michael’s parties a few months later. Was the song “Everything I Do” by Bryan Adams, and I asked Dave out. He was my first boyfriend. All 5 days of that relationship, hehehe.
Either 9th or 10th grade with Eric Hicks. The song was some horrible Whitney Houston piece of crap (I want to say “Saving All My Love for You.”) The DJ warned us it was the last chance to slow dance, so I was stuck with it. He didn’t have any interest in me but did it just to be nice. I was a dork and didn’t know where to put my hands, lol. It was nice, except for my extreme dorkiness.
7th grade, her name was Caroline. I had a huge crush on her, and was waaaaaay to nervous to ask her to dance. I was pretty unhappy, but she took pity on me and asked me to dance. Song was “All My Life” or something like that… don’t remember who did it, it was pretty typical sappy pop fare. This was 1999.
And no, she did not reciprocate my feelings, but it made my night - I was ecstatic for the rest of it, little suspecting the two years of misery that would follow. I had even planned to ask her to dance during “Stairway to Heaven,” but that was blown out of the water when the fog machine set off the smoke alarm. Ah, the memories…
I was in fifth grade in Germany. It was December and there was snow all over the ground. Our parents dropped us off at one of the rec halls on base. Not too many of us showed up, maybe 25, since the weather wasn’t all that great.
I spent most of the night running around with my friend, Angelique, chasing some of the boys around trying to scare them. The DJ announced the last song for the night. Almost everyone started dancing.
One of the guys I had been chasing stopped and asked me if I wanted to dance. His name was Chris. We stood as far apart as possible. I don’t think we ever spoke after that dance. We moved three weeks later.
