Interviewing

[lindyhop]

Originally Posted by €uroMeinke

I know you enjoy swing dancing at Disneyland. When and how did your interest in dance begin? Is it something you like to watch as well as do. Please tell us you most memorable dance experience.

When I was four or five years old my mother tried to get started with a tap dancing class. I was very shy and very awkward and hated it. Despite that experience I was always attracted to dance (on my own terms) because I love music, especially music that makes you want to move. I alway thought that it was out of reach for me because I didn't know any men who liked to dance and you needed a partner, right?

Then in the summer of 1999 I was at Disneyland and noticed that they were offering a free swing dance lesson at Plaza Gardens. I joined in that night and went back every Friday night for the rest of the summer. I discovered that the people who taught the lessons (and organized the rest of the entertainment during the band breaks that year) taught classes in Pasadena and they advertised that you didn't need a partner so I tried it out. I found 100 people (more men than women!) on a Sunday afternoon all learning to dance. That was more than five years ago and I've never stopped.

I like watching dance sometimes but mostly I just want to be doing it myself. If I am just watching I study to see what styling the woman is doing that I might try myself and I watch the man to decide if this is someone I'd like to dance with.

One of the magical things I've discovered about learning to dance it that it's really learning a whole new language and each dance can be an intense conversation even if you never exchange a word. My most memorable dances have been when I've been totally in synch with someone for those three or four minutes. Sometimes it happens with someone I know but it can also happen with someone I've never met before and I'll never see again.

What life experience caused you to learn the most about yourself, and what did you learn.

My divorce. That woke me up out of what I'd accepted that my life was going to be. I was married, I had a husband, a child, and that was the way things were supposed to be. I didn't even think about whether all that made me happy, it was just what was expected. I also learned how strong I could be on my own.

What are you curious about? What peaks your interests, and what information or experiences do you seek out?

I'm generally curious about the most useless and esoteric information. Like in today's paper there was an article about an archaeological dig on the Donner Party. I guess there was other news today but (yawn) who cares when people are digging up bone fragments to determine whether or not there really was cannibalism. I also like astronomy and reading about scientific discoveries I don't understand. It's still cool.

What fictional character(s) do you connect with – either in seeming close to your own sensibilities, or as someone you’d like to be like.

Kinsey Milhone, Sharone McCone, Skip Langdon, Kate Shugak: These are all characters from my favorite detective fiction series. These woman are independent and strong, they confront problems and solve crimes. I wish I could be just a little bit like them.

Otherwise I think the fictional character that I've connected with since I was a kid is Alice from Alice in Wonderland. I love how she tries to be polite and proper but still manages to argue and disagree with so many characters she meets. She's cranky and bossy and curious and doesn't get punished for being herself.

100 years from now, what would you like to be remembered for?

I want to be remembered as someone who always stayed active even into old age. I want to be remembered as someone positive that people liked to be around, that I made them laugh. And of course, I was a really good dancer...


This was fun. Now the hard part, thinking of questions for someone else!