Sunday, November 15, 2009

Dosados in Vienna

Alright, so this I got to share with you.

When living in the US I developed a strange fascination for country music and the whole culture surrounding it. Actually this might seem odd considering the fact that we stayed in a bustling metropol like LA and not Nashville or the like. Anyhow, we would drive to these country themed clubs outside of LA, where they were serving cheese burgers and Budweisers while big crowds wearing cowboy boots, cowboy hats and fringe leather jackets were line dancing. It was an amazing insight into a culture that affirmed some of the stereotypical images one (read: I) had about Americans. And the music somehow slowly growed on me. We would come across it when roadtripping and flipping through the radio stations. Also we once attended a party for international students at USC with square dance, which was so much fun.

After arriving to Vienna I knew I had to sign up for some kind of activities to meet people and to do something FUN. I remembered my friend Christina back in Copenhagen, who joined a line dance-class and always talked vividly about it. So after considering other activities, I thought, oh what the heck, it's time to give it a try. And so I signed up for a linedance/square dance course and started about a month ago. Every Thursday night I show up to Kopetsky's Tanzschule, where I'm joined by women, who are about twice my age and one guy (who by the way is always wearing rolled up jeans, tight and very shiny cowboy boots and a toupe..). When not dancing the women are smoking cigarets - and lots of them - in the lobby. The teacher or rather the caller is a man in his 60s wearing a cowboy hat, who make the ladies giggle. I don't understand his jokes in German... He is teaching us to dance line dance to this song. Now when I listen to it, I can't even understand how it's possible to dance to it. It's SO slow!! But somehow it works out.

When dancing we can look across the street into the building on the other side, where a pilates institute is located. There we can see young women sliding elegantly back and forth.
And then I'm thinking: what am I doing here with all these chain-smoking ladies and a man with a toupe, dancing something I remotely connect with line dance? I do spend a great deal of time when I'm there those Thursday nights laughing inside myself of the whole situation. If anything I guess I could have told myself that a Wiener walzer class might be more appropriate in Vienna.

Now check out this video for the world's longest line dance. Yehaaaw!

- Oversæt til dansk

1 comment:

  1. Du er sgu skør Dorte! :)
    (Fra Katrine)

    ReplyDelete