<a href="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/2013/02/two-steppin-lessons-tulsa-country-dance-association/photo-12-3/" rel="attachment wp-att-12837"><img src="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/photo-12-500x500.jpg" alt="Tulsa Country Dance Association Two Stepping" title="Tulsa Country Dance Association Two Stepping" width="500" height="500" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-12837" /></a>

I was stepped on only once, and I came home smelling like 20 different colognes. Plus, I learned the two-step, and since I managed not to hurt anyone or curse (out loud), I got free passes to come back and bring my friends. 

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Every Monday night the Tulsa Country Western Dance Association (don't you just feel better in a world where there is a <a href="http://www.tcwda.net/" target="_blank">Tulsa Country Western Dance Association</a>?) hosts dance lessons at the Moose Lodge in east Tulsa, at about 7th and Garnett (11106 E. 7th Street). The evening starts with a two-stepping course that begins with the very first lesson—in fact, the lesson <em>before</em> the very first lesson. I know this because I, the proud but clumsy owner of two left feet, was able to proceed to the following lesson. For days after, I could hear Bob Spears—he's the guy in the white cowboy hat, and he's the one who teaches the classes—telling me to step quick, quick, slow, slow, his voice in my head asking me to two-step to the mailbox, down the coffee aisle in the grocery store, in the parking lot at my office.

Again, class starts at 6 p.m. with an hour of beginner lessons. At 7 p.m., it's basic/intermediate, but don't worry—the 6 p.m. hour prepares you for the 7 p.m. Then, at 8 p.m. is the intermediate/advanced lesson, but just like how the two previous hours worked together, the 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. hours prepare you for the 8 p.m. hour. <a href="http://www.tcwda.net/Images/PDF/INTRODUCTION.pdf" target="_blank">Here's the list of what you'll learn</a> (PDF; warning, exciting technical dance terminology ahead). The whole night costs $7.50. Not a bad price at all for three hours' worth of entertainment. 

So, you get to learn how you need to be dancing at <a href="http://www.cainsballroom.com/" target="_blank">Cain's Ballroom</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CaravanCattleCompany" target="_blank">The Caravan</a> (hey, I hear they have a nice new dance floor), and <a href="http://tumbleweedok.com/" target="_blank">The Tumbleweed</a>, and you also get to meet a classroom full of new people who are there for the same reason you are—to learn how to do a little two-steppin' from the guy named Bob with the nice smile who danced on stage at the Grand Ole Opry once. Everyone is nervous at first about switching partners every couple of bars, but by the end of that first hour you've danced with everyone in the room, and you're a better dancer for it, even if you only started just that night. That's half the lesson, really.

Plus: This? These Monday-night two-stepping classes? That's where my uncle met my (now) aunt. Now they have a brood of pond-jumping spaniels and a new tree farm. They're not the only ones—my dad found love on the dance floor, too, though it didn't begin on the one at the Moose Lodge. It was just one of the ones where it blossomed. Now my dad teaches line dancing classes with my stepmom, and he twirls her around in parking lots after dinners out sometimes.

<a href="http://www.tcwda.net/Main_page.htm" target="_blank">Signing up for the TCWDA email newsletter</a> is the best way to keep up with what will be covered at the next week's class, plus any announcements on cool stuff the group is up to. You can do it at the link above. Or, you go for full immersion and sign the sheet on the clipboard just inside the dance hall door on the night of your first class (recommended). 

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