Time for a Confessional

As I am writing this, I cannot believe what I am about to tell you. I am sitting here laughing as hard as I can as I get ready to make this confession. Are you ready? Here I go?

I love to dance.

There, I said it! I am not just talking about any dancing...I am talking country/western dancing. Here is the story.

When I was a kid, my dad and all his friends would take country dancing lessons from this couple that owned a dance studio. Honestly, it was something for them to all do together during the week and then go out on the weekends and put their newfound skills to the test.

All of my dad's friends had kids my age. Most of them would go into the other room and watch whatever was on the television while our parents took these dance lessons. That didn't interest me at the time. I wanted to learn how to dance like everyone else was doing. So I was the lone kid in the crowd. I learned how to do the 2-step, waltz, east-coast swing, west-coast swing, cha-cha, etc. I actually became fairly good at the dances. My dad and his friends would head out on a Friday and/or Saturday nights to go dancing. I was happy to go with them. Well, you can imagine that I was out there dancing all night long with all these women who were older than me. I was the novelty...a kid who knew all the dances and knew how to lead. We would be out till after midnight most times just dancing then going out for breakfast. It was awesome for a kid. Heck, it sounds like fun now...let's go.

Before you decide to stop reading, there's more. Oh, it get's even better.

Fast forward to my junior and senior year of high school. I was out every weekend dancing wherever the music was at the time. Country dancing was the "in" thing to be doing. One of my friends in high school invited me to go dancing with her one Friday night. She told me to be sure to bring an extra pair of clothes to change into for more dancing. I did not quite understand, but I went anyway. Little did I know about the world I was about to enter.

We get to this television production studio and enter a door below an awning that said the "White Horse Cafe." I had heard of this place before, but I did not realize what I was just about to walk in to at the time. Turns out that the White Horse Cafe is the place where the television show "Club Dance" took place. That's right, I was about to dance on television. I was freaking out, but excited by the idea.

For those of you who have never heard of this show, Club Dance was a dancing show on The Nashville Network from 1991 - 1999. The Nashville Network (TNN) is now Spike TV. People would tune in every weekday to watch us dance around the floor for an hour. It was hosted by Shelly and Phil...two characters in their own right. We ended up taping over 2000 episodes during its run. We would tape three shows on Friday evenings and two shows on Saturday morning. I was on the show from 1994 - 1997. I got to be on the show more than 100 times, which meant I was considered a "regular."

This show was a blast to be a part of. The atmosphere was one of just sheer fun. Everyone was there to have a good time, listen to some country music, and DANCE. There were some crazy characters on the show. I will keep their names off of here for their own good. I got to go to a couple weddings of some of the couples who met on the show. Good friends and good memories.

Well, there you have it...my confessional for the day. I don't know why I thought about sharing this, but I thought I would just give you something to make you laugh a bit. Below you will find a couple videos that I found from the show on Youtube. They are not the highest quality videos, but you get an idea. I may or may not be in these particular videos. Although, I do have tapes of the shows I am in because my dad constantly taped the show. He was a proud papa!

Hope everyone is going well and is happy!
- JC