Look at me and tell me what you see
Choreographing a new kid inside and out
Which kid were you? Ballet? Soccer? BMXer? Mud pie maker? Me? I guess a Sunday School and Brownie kid (and not the ones you ate).
Options were limited back in the 1970s and 80s, not just because of the decades but living on a farm made transport more challenging and money wasn’t growing on trees, despite the money tree we had in our lounge.
Mum was a dedicated Brownie and Guide mum. She would drive me into Patea and while I was busy learning to darn, be a hostess, or how not to prick a patient while practising applying a bandage, she would wait for me. First, she’d go to the library and when it closed sit in the car reading under a poor car light.
Mum took Sunday School and I loved the little books and worksheets we would get.
At heart, I guess I was a newspaper and magazine kid. Yes, I had always wanted to be a journalist but I had another, much more secretive, career goal.
Okay, career goal is pushing it, but I wanted to be a choreographer. I have no idea where this came from other than the influence of 80s pop videos and TV shows. Think Michael Jackson, Footloose, Grease, Fame, and Flashdance, but mainly Fame — who doesn’t want to live forever and wear leg warmers? And live in New York?
That I can barely stand on one foot, let alone get it up to my ear, and have a body suited for a radio journalist was neither here nor there. I wasn’t going to dance, I was going to tell people to perform the moves I came up with. The power!
I’d spin and leap(ish) around the lounge, keeping well away from the money tree, and dream.
I’ve only told one person before today about my choreographing dream and that was after he told me he wanted to be a model. We were both working for Inland Revenue at the time!
My teenage dreams came back to me on Saturday at the Rose City Dancesport Spectacular. Until then, I’d only seen ballroom and Latin American dancing on TV and the big screen. My friend and I would have been happy just oohing and aahing over the dresses.
It was like they had a thesaurus of synonyms for spectacular stitched into every seam.
The Viennese waltz and the quickstep quickly became my favourites as four feet became two.
The champs were held at Fly Palmy Arena, the home venue for the Manawatū Jets. This got me thinking of a challenge for readers.
If you were a ballet kid, go to a basketball game. If you were a soccer kid, go to a play. If you were a Cub go to a Manawatū Cyclones game. You get the idea.
Coincidentally, it was 30 years on Saturday since Strictly Ballroom was released in Australia. Only Paul Mercurio could make a rotary clothesline sexy.
I still have my Brownie book. Would you believe for a week of good turns that on the Saturday I fetched the paper?
For my study of the royal family, I wrote the Queen was a busy person, who visits other countries, hospitals and goes to church.
My badge certificates record I explained clearly and accurately how to clean my teeth, I made an “imaginative nativity scene” and my grandmother, who assessed my cook’s badge, said I was a good cook!
Whatever kind of kid you were, or still are, do go to Jersey Boys. All the hype is true — in my choreographer’s eyes!