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CHAPTER 17. Navigation and endings.

Excerpt....."I now have to make a confession. One lady I dance with on a regular basis always closes her eyes when she dances. In a moment of devilment one evening I took her a complete clockwise circuit on a packed dance floor. I am proud to say that we had no collisions and, what’s more, she was totally oblivious that we had done it. I admit that she is tiny and so my field of vision was not restricted. It was great fun but I promise I will never do it again.

I love to watch a packed dance floor ebb and flow to the music, like a tide. It is almost spooky to watch, particularly when the floor is full of mature dancers who have danced as a group for years. The music starts and they wait for a few bars, then, as if by a pre-arranged signal, off they go. If the music stomps along, so do they. When the music becomes lyrical and the beat less insistent, the flow slows and the movements of the dancers become more sinuous, not just as individual couples but ‘en masse’. Each couple is moved by the music but also senses the general mood of the crowd.

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