Switching it up!

By Tavia Rzasa and Jessica Williams (of course)

Another Wednesday; it’s the middle of the week; hump day; Hell. Wednesday holds the promise of the approaching weekend, but is still a reminder that there are two more days to endure. Wednesdays suck. The fact that spring vacation was not-so-quickly approaching added to the tension of the week. Thankfully, this Wednesday was the one to break the monotony of the school day.

As the bell rang, students shuffled in, hurrying to the remaining seats that filled each row of desks. The classroom was cold, as usual. Greene was busily writing “Day 2- Hell” on the board, with the sub headings, “New Journalism” and “Embarrassment.” One could only muse the possibilities of the latter. Group editing? Listening to last week’s podcasts with the class?

Toting a blue boom box, Greene moved toward the door as we all sat wondering what was in store for us next. “Let’s go, get up!” he instructed us. Confused, we all followed him out the door and down the upper C hallway. We passed Mrs. Naylor’s class, all of whom looked interested in why a group of students was walking down the hallway mid-block.

“Circle up!” Greene said as we entered the atrium. “Pick a partner, any partner! One of you will lead, the other will follow. Pick who’s going to lead.”

Partners were chosen; some pairs containing two girls, some with two boys and some with a boy and a girl. This created quite the dilemma when the same-sex pairs had to decide who would be the lead, which would usually be a boy and who would follow as the “girl.”

“You’re going to learn a waltz,” Greene informed us. How this was relevant to the curriculum was beyond us. There was no doubt in our minds that we would have to write a story about it. Alas, here we are.

To start off our dance lesson, Greene told us that the waltz is a three step dance. “Say it with me: One, two, three. One, two, three,” he stressed the first count as we repeated after him.

“Leads, pay attention. It’s simple, watch,” Greene said. “Take your left foot, step forward. Then take your right foot, and step forward and to the right. Bring your left foot over to your right.” Then he explained how to repeat the step backwards beginning with the right foot.

After the leads practiced, Greene went on to the steps for those who were following. “Basically, you do the same thing backwards.” The class practiced individually, stepping on our own feet. “Face your partners. Leads place your left hand on the shoulder blade of your partner. Followers your right hand goes on top of their shoulder. Elbows should be touching and there should be no space in between your arms.”

We clasped hands with our partners and so began our first official choreographed journalism class. The next thing we knew, Greene was informing us that while dancing, we would be moving in a circular pattern. This only added to our confusion.

Greene turned on the boom box and the waltz began. A classical piece wafted through the upper C atrium and caught the attention of passerby. Students wandering the halls stopped to stare and some even videotaped our experience on their cell phones. Partner dancing, or any other kind for that matter, is not usually seen in the hallways during second block. We were quite the spectacle.

Once most pairs had given up, Greene turned off the waltz. “Back to the circle! Pick a partner. Same partner, new partner. I don’t care. The next step is a salsa.” Salsa dancing in journalism? Honestly, we would expect nothing less of Greene.

“This is a six-step dance, but it’s still relatively easy. Leads, you’re going to step forward, rock, back. Back, rock, forward,” Greene said as he demonstrated, dancing in his usual cowboy boots.

After we had the chance to try the simple steps, Greene instructed us to switch it up a little bit and do some twirls, spins, anything! When nobody obliged, we returned to class, still laughing about our failure as ballroom dancers.

The excitement, sadly, came to an end. We returned to the classroom, sat in our seats, and were given yet another assignment- just what we needed!

At this moment, Wednesday began to suck, yet again. Thanks to this out of the ordinary lesson, we made it through yet another Wednesday. Who knew that waltzing was the secret to making it through the last week before vacation?