Monday, May 4, 2009

When Frisbee Folk get Dressed

Last night we went out with the Frisbee folk for the fist time in a long time. Our resident Japanese member Katsu (if you remember from Monte Hermoso he was my teammate and mascot) invited us all to Azucar (where Jessica and I have previously taken our few salsa classes) for a night of salsa. To say the least it was a fun night of dancing, and it felt great to hang out with everyone again - even if we weren't the most suave dancers on the dance floor. Josh and tried to dance together several times, but with our general lack of salsa moves we just got in the way of the other folk and gave it a rest until the end of the night when we decided we didn't care and just wanted to dance. I enjoyed watching some of the more talented dancers, and then joined in with the other Frisbee folk for a bit of free styling. It was fun, but it did feel a bit like high school. While everyone else on the dance floor was dancing in couples, we danced in a big circle, or in clumps. At first I felt a bit awkward and underage, and then let loose and shook my booty. While Josh hung out with some Columbians I danced with Felipe like old times and regretted my decision to wear clunky boots.
Of course the most ridiculous part of the night was when it turned adult bar mitzvah on us. Everyone celebrating a bday got up on stage, and then it was dance contest time. The two guys went first. I thought, well this is going to be lame and then ate my thoughts as they started gyrating all over the dance floor. I mean, these guys knew how to shake a booty or two, and they knew how to get down. They brought it to the floor, and then back up, and then around, and then back to the floor. I looked at Karen, the expat Frisbee player standing next to me, and with wide eyed disbelief we could not get over overly sexualized these men were, and how that would never happen anywhere but a gay bar in the States. Yes, straight men in the States do sometimes dance all sexy like (the fireman competition in Staten Island from Sex in the City comes to mind). But this abandonment of their machismo ideology and their willingness to please the crowd with their gyrating was amazing and something I've never experienced in the States before.
Even better was when the girls competed. One girl was kinda boring. The next was missing most of her dress but not a boob job, and attempted to use what God didn't give her to win. The next girl was modestly dressed and opted for talent over sex appeal. The did this awesome dance with her legs moving very quickly, and as I hoped for talent won over sex. The men were selling themselves on the dance floor and women with talent won. All was right in the world.
We left at 4:30, and we were the first to go. I felt kinda like an old fogey, but my back kind of hurt, and I was tired!!! We took the bus home, and dove into bed where we stayed until 3, cuddling the day away!