The rehearsals for Dancing with Geneva Stars have begun.

I have to admit, I was pretty excited about learning the first few steps of the Jive with our choreographer Alex. As Beth has written, I am dancing with a long time friend, Derek Swanson. The Jive is a fast and exhilarating dance, so it seems right up our alley.  I didn’t know if he was as pumped as I was, however I have since confirmed that his excitement level is equal, if not more, than mine. And the chance for us to raise money for Geneva Academic Foundation (of which we have both been on the board for) and Geneva Cultural Arts Commission is something we are both very proud of, being life long Genevans.

Derek and I knew we were in good hands when Alex told us we could help pick our song to dance to, and he didn’t even cringe when I said, “maybe something from the '80s.” (I just loved the 80s!) Upon further examination of song choice, and advice from our high school daughters, we are going to be “hip” and use something current.

Song choice—check.

Upon learning the first few steps, Alex decided we were catching on pretty quickly and proceeded to teach us many more steps. In fact, we are already into one minute of our 2½-minute dance.  It is far from perfect, but it is tons of fun! I think our daughters even enjoyed watching it, and they were great for our egos with the compliments.

First rehearsal—check.

Without giving too much information to the “competition,” I will tell that a well known dance step from the '80s is in it, and I am working on perfecting the splits.  Sadly, the rehearsal ended too soon. When we left, we found out that Friday nights are normally quiet at State Street Dance Studio and the instructor in the studio next to ours inquired as to what was going on, as there was lots of laughing.

Not taking ourselves too seriously—check.

After just one meeting with the 2012 dancers and one rehearsal with our awesome choreographer Alex and my fantastic partner Derek, I can positively, without hesitation say, this is going to be a very memorable experience, and I absolutely cannot wait to learn the next “few” steps in our Jive.