The following memory popped up in my Facebook newsfeed yesterday. Thank you Facebook, for reminding me July 11 is our Danceversary a.k.a Dance Anniversary. I reposted it with the following message and tagged The Doc so he’d know how much I appreciate pursuing this hobby (okay more like an obsession these days) with him.

This memory popped up in my newsfeed this morning! Eight years ago today we danced in our first amateur-amateur event. Happy Dance Anniversary to the best dance and life partner I could ever imagine being mine. I love you, Pat Datoc, we’ve come a long way!

As of this morning, the post received 91 LIKES and 24 comments. Kind of a lot of traction for a couple of nobodies. Since folks seem to be inspired by our partnership I figured I’d repost the following personal reflection. It was originally published in August of 2015 shortly after our competitive debut as an am-am couple. Our age classes have changed, our proficiency level has changed, my hair has changed (thank goodness) and I’ve got a couple of brand-spanking new hips, but the four main reasons I love dancing am-am are still the same. And one more thing… we’re still team Dancing Housewife & Dancing Doc…together forever. I hope you enjoy taking this stroll down memory lane with me.

The Dancing Housewife on How to Spice Up a Marriage

The Dancing Doc had way more fun than he expected in his competitive debut. Of course he did because 1) he danced with me and  2) he danced with me. Check out the post-competition pictorial wrap…

Don’t we look happy? Crap loads of fun aside, there are significant advantages to dancing full-on amateur with your spouse over dancing pro-am with someone half your age (okay, less than half your age).

Cost.  No brainer. Sure, it took something like ten months of exhaustive subliminal seduction and straight up nagging to finally break him, but at least I don’t have to pay the Dancing Doc to dance with me. Don’t misunderstand me, pro-am is completely legit and I recommend it to anyone getting started. There really are a ton of benefits to pro-am. Still, there’s something slightly tawdry about having to pay a guy to dance with you. Kind of like bribing a cousin to be your prom date.

Equal Footing.  Obviously since I am the “am” in the pro-am partnership, I’m the weaker half so I generally feel pressure not to make my pro look bad. Lucky for me, my pro is the consummate professional. Translation: he’s not an egotistical attention-grabber who out-dances me every chance he gets just to prove he’s faaaaaabulousssss. Anyway, there’s none of that inherent pressure not to mess up with the Dancing Doc because if I make a mistake I’m confident he’ll return the favor. He does some things better than I do and vice-versa. Frankly, he is way more natural and relaxed than I am, but I log way more hours in the studio than he does, which puts us on equal footing with regard to making each other look bad. Plus we’re married … and parents… so we’ve got each other’s backs on the whole looking bad thing anyway, no matter who’s at fault.

Icky-Weird Factor.  Pro-am heats in my age division and at my proficiency level look more like a mixer at a cougar convention than a ballroom competition. Seriously, my coach/professional partner is thirty years younger than me, which is pretty much the status quo in the ballroom world. Young pros are always hoisting old broads around the dance floor. I know fifty is the new thirty, but dancing with a 23-year old in public that does not involve the phrase “mother-of-the-groom” at a wedding reception still makes me a teensy-weensy bit queasy.  Dancing with my husband, on the other hand, feels perfectly natural and normal and age appropriate.

Great Way to Spice Up a Marriage. The reason we started dancing in the first place was to avoid falling into the dangerous trap of living parallel lives. Drifting apart… it’s a sad fate suffered by lots of otherwise happily married couples once their chicks leave the nest. Dancing pro-am is great, but I wasn’t looking for a new dance partner… I just wanted the old one back. And now I have him.

Team Dancing Housewife & Dancing Doc… together forever.

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