Embarassing Dancing and Detours to Die for

We all should have a few detours in our life- and it's even better if we have embarrassing footage to look at after it's over! (Well, This is one of mine....)

As we all do, I sometimes do google searches of things from my past. Often they are easy to find- an old boyfriend, a link to a music video, mostly things I've almost forgotten that I've just had seep back into my memory. 

This was a stumbled upon a memory of the summer when I almost died. 

Which led to the story of my one and only appearance on Italian TV.....

While watching the (excellent) TV series The Good Pope (HBO) my memory was jarred back twenty years ago, to the summer of 1998; that was when my appendix ruptured and I ended up very sick, in the hospital (coincidentally, the hospital where DaVinci did his anatomical studies) It was also the summer when I spent a month dancing with a Tuscan folk dance troupe...and we ended up on national television....

Tango, anyone?

(me in 1985)

"Una Rosa Per il 2000" (a rose for two thousand) was the name of the broadcast- it was (as they explained to me) a summer "special program" which was in celebration of the upcoming turn of the millennium. It was a typically Italian program- one which had me wonder if they just had time to fill and made up an excuse for the show. It didn't really matter- it was a little adventure and I can't believe that its actually on line! 

this is the link to the segment which has "my" dance troupe- https://vimeo.com/1328120

BLINK, and you'll miss me but I'm the shortie in the dancers that begin at 3:20. See if you can spot me! 

No, I'm not a folk dancer- I did it as a way to shake off my experience of being almost killed by a ruptured appendix and peritonitis...It's long story that I won't bore you with, the important point was I survived, but was very weak. I had lost a great deal of muscle tone, plus I was depressed from the experience. 

I needed a distraction, and a friend offered me to try her dance troupe, which needed a female dancer.

I figured, what the heck? I had just stared down the reaper...what's to be afraid of? A little light televised humiliation in a country where I had no real connections? Kid stuff, after having my recent dance with death. And so... I jumped in and danced! 

I stopped dancing with them once I decided to return to art school. It was a short chapter in my Italian life- a detour for certain, and certainly a lot of fun. I highly recommend taking detours! They spice things up and give you stories ( and embarrassing videos)

This "special" program was live broadcast in the late Summer 1998 , in the beautiful city of Viterbo Italy. it was absolutely an experience that I wouldn't have had if I didn't gather my courage and try something new. 

I tangoed with the reaper and came out dancing with a rose clenched firmly in my teeth. 
Totally goofy
Totally worth it.