Slow day at sea, so: Dancing on a World Cruise...

No doubt this is exactly what you have been holding your breath waiting for, not.

Somehow, dancing and cruise ships seem to go hand in hand. But to many men, this is not the case. To many women, yes, they like to dance, and a ship at sea seems the logical place to do it.

I suppose you are aware that there are free dancing lessons twice a day while we are at sea. There is a Canadian couple on board on this cruise who are very congenial and excellent dancers and instructors. The only problem is that they have a sense of rhythm that many/most men do not have. Dancing is a touchy issue with men. Some men consider good male dancers woosies, while most women think good dancers are wonderful, and somehow us men cannot get our brains around that fact. We still are stuck in grade seven when we were told we were going to learn to dance. At that age girls were worse than a case of measles and usually smarter than us so we did not want to have anything to do with that girlie stuff. The smart dudes however learned to dance, and are admired by women, [I still resent those guys.]

Holland America recognizes the fact that men usually die earlier than women. They also recognize the fact that a cruise ship is a very safe place for single women to travel alone on. [Single means, unwed, separated, divorced or widowed.] To make the cruise more enjoyable, the cruise line engages 'dance hosts', at this moment there are six on board. [The compensation situation regarding dance hosts is up for discussion, later possibly.]

If you think that a crew member has a tough job on this ship, you should try keeping up with a 'dance host' for a couple of weeks. They are all middle age or older. They are not suave looking gigolo's or debonair dandy's. They are just guys who have lost their wives or never had one or whatever and like to dance. They are not good dancers in the context of real smoothies. Heck, even I could try out for the job in a pinch.

What I find interesting is the relationship between the dance hosts and the women who are on the cruise, and dancing is a major part of their decision to come on a particular cruise. [You can even enquire and find out how many hosts are scheduled on a cruise, yes you can!] I remember when we were in grade seven eight and nine, and a bit after that we would attend church Friday night dances in Kerrisdale. There was not really any attachment between the singles that came and danced together. There were some couples that came and danced every dance together because they were 'going together'. Well here, nobody is 'going' with anybody. The hosts are there to dance and dance they do. They turn up at the appointed time and spread their time very equally amongst the ladies that are there to dance without a partner. On this cruise I have been told there are about 12 such ladies. The scheduled time for dancing is published in the daily bulletin and the dancers have to be at their appointed paces at the appointed time.

The relationship between the hosts is unlike the relationship between a 'couple', after the dance there is no obligation to sit and chat, he will go and hold out his hand for another woman and take another spin on the floor.

The ladies are all very sociable and friendly amongst each other and may even casually call themselves 'dance groupies'. They are however very aware of how many dances each host and lady have had together. Socializing while not dancing can be a cause for a little talk or worse. The dance hosts do a tremendous job of not forming a noticeable attachment to any particular lady. On the floor you can see that some couples are almost made for each other and others look a bit like doing a 'duty dance'.

The reason for this note on dancing is that Fellette and I attended a couple of dance lessons on the ship some several weeks ago. For about the fourth time in our married life I gave up and said 'no more', the instructors go too fast and assume that I have a 'rhythm bone' somewhere in my body and this is completely false. However lately we have gone to a couple of the dance areas and got on the floor and actually had a good time doing our version of 'the utilitarian two-step'. During those times I made my observations on the dancing situation on board. I would say that less than 10% of couples on board dance on even an occasional basis.

At least that is the way I see it. Two more days to India.