Driven to Distraction

I have dreams and goals and stuff to do around the house. These are the things this week that kept me from getting to any of it.

Confessions On a Xana-Dancer: Part One

September 29, 2006

Page 1 | Page 2

dennishensley_xanadu_320x24.jpgA year ago this month -- for my birthday, natch -- a gaggle of friends attended a sing-along screening of the 80’s camp classic Xanadu at the Alex Theater in Glendale. Why? because I, like many of you, just can’t get enough of that shitty, sweet movie.

Halfway in, during the toe-tapping 40’s-meet-the-80’s number ‘Dancin,’ a troupe of live costumed dancers appeared from nowhere and did the choreography from the movie -- move for move -- in front of the screen. Understand that no one in the audience was expecting this, and so we all went apeshit. I thought my head was going to explode from pure joy. You really do have to believe in magic.

In the months since, I’ve become friendly with one of the Xana-dancers, Sam, and when Sam let me know it was happening again, on October 20, I let him know I would be available to fill in should they need extra dancers. I worked as a dancer on cruise ships for five years in my 20’s, after all, and I still have my Capezio jazz boots.

Sam e-mailed me back and said, “You’re in.” I may just have to frame that e-mail.

So on October 20, 2006 I’m going to realize my lifelong dream of being a Xana-dancer, a long-in-the-tooth, love handled Lattanzi and I’m beside myself with excitement. Originally, I was going to be in the 80’s group but I was switched to the 40’s group for scheduling reasons, which is probably for the best because the 80’s dancers wore lots of form-fitting spandex, which is not a good idea when you’re 108 years old.

I had my first rehearsal this week and I was a little nervous going in — like the first day of school. Would the other kids like me? Would there be a lot of lifts because I suck at lifts? Would I be the only one there on Lipitor? The answer to these questions was yes, the other kids are very nice and young. So far, there’s only one lift and I have another guy helping me. I didn’t ask about the Lipitor because I was too busy trying to get the steps down. I want to do Olivia proud.

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Comments

theprgayboys wrote:

"Originally, I was going to be in the 80’s group but I was switched to the 40’s group for scheduling reasons, which is probably for the best because the 80’s dancers wore lots of form-fitting spandex, which is not a good idea when you’re 108 years old."

LOL. That is fabulous, darling! Congratulations and good luck! Keep us posted.

posted at September 30, 2006 09:15 AM

Jon A. Leslie wrote:

OMG! Fabulousness. Keep us posted. I'll see if I can rollerskate down to Glendale for that! He-he!

Regarsdarama,

Jon

posted at October 5, 2006 01:21 PM

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