Dancing My Way Through My Lockdown

I couldn’t do it without the music.

Some of my friends, Timothy Key, Rasheed Hooda, and Sherry McGuinn (leaders of this in-house concert), nominated me, along with other more talented writers, to document the music of our lives.

I’ve been solo quarantining since Methuselah was in diapers. I can’t remember what came before the virus. Was there really intelligent life on the planet before February 2020? I can’t remember back that far. I haven’t seen a live human face since March 13, and only twice before February 29 when I hauled my stinging, itchy, blotchy self to my nearest ER and received a shingles diagnosis. They said I was contagious, and I didn’t think staying inside for a week or two so I didn’t infect my neighbors was too much to ask.

Heh, heh, heh, went the evil doctor in the wings, orchestrating the pandemic he would release on the planet in just fifteen short days.

Or whoever is responsible for this unholy screwup we’re living in now. Because my isolation is two weeks longer than my neighbors, I got a head start on grouchy behavior and bad attitude, so don’t get me started.

The thing that gets me through these endless days is my dance partner.

That would me moi. She follows my lead perfectly and never steps on my toes, though I do have to remind her to be careful when she spins. Her balance is crapola since she had a little stroke ages ago, but other than that, she’s got some moves for an old crone.

So what do we dance to? I’m glad you asked because we just took a turn on the kitchen linoleum. While we’re catching our breath, here are a few of our favorite tunes that help us get in our 5–7k steps a day, at least 2.5 miles of dancing.

You may laugh at a little old lady getting in her exercise by dancing to golden oldies every day but get this. I had my six-month check-up with my cardiologist this week by video call, and my first question was, when can I go out and play?

I explained my concerns about leaving my apartment: 100 tenants in a 6-story building, and some of them not wearing masks when I open my door to pick up deliveries. So I know the elevator isn’t safe, nor are our narrow hallways. Because of a bad knee I’m trying to protect from further surgery, I can’t walk down six flights of stairs, though I can walk up them all day long. Getting out, not being out, is my issue.

He said as long as I’m exercising every day, I should stay in until it’s perfectly safe to brave my halls and elevator, and it sure isn’t now. I know some of you are out and about getting your steps in walking around your ‘hood, and dancing a hole in your living room rug may no longer be your thing. But hold onto this article because “Winter is coming.” And I can hear that evil doctor in the wings, whispering, “Heh, heh, heh…” I hope we give him a stick in the eye and kick this pandemic to the curb real soon.

But for now, my doctor said not to push going out.

It’s still too risky out there for someone like me who is still healthy but with a few underlying conditions that would blow up if I contracted the virus. So I’m likely to be dancing my bohonkus off inside for another month or so, and here’s what gets me up on me feet every day. Actually, you might find these work for a backyard party, or a beach bash. Who needs an excuse to get up and dance?

Old-time movie stars doing the up-town funk.

Are we over Bruno Mars yet? If we are, I’m bringing him back. Or at least Bruno and the Funk he rode in on.

It seems like yesterday everybody and his quarantined uncle were doing a cover of Uptown Funk on FaceBook. Now, not so much. Today, it’s all jokes about Zoom. But this is still one of my top 5 fave songs to get my grove on and my steps in any day of the week and twice on Sunday — which is the best way to rachet up your step count on days you’re like me, a little bit lazy.

Coming in at a good 1300 steps, if you rewind and funk it up twice, this video gets my day off to a rousing start while I make my coffee and wait for my toast to brown. I try to be light on my feet if I do this in the kitchen because I don’t have throw rugs or carpeting in the breakfast nook, and my downstairs neighbors like to sleep in.

However, if I give this one another round after lunch, I’ll follow along with Anne Miller, Shirley Temple, the Nickolas Brothers, and Fred Astaire, among others. The genius who put these clips together shows just a few seconds of the hot dance steps of their day matching Bruno Mars’s perfect beat.

Some days I could get my whole two-plus miles in funking around my digs to this one. Come join me.

The Raggle Taggle Gypsy

This tune has a story for me. In 1976, my mother and I visited Ireland and England to visit my relatives, my first trip overseas. Three years earlier, my father had returned to the farm in Ireland where he was born. He died there of a heart attack.

My mother‘s’ brother and his wife came over from England to meet us and toured Ireland with us by car after we left Charlestown, in Mayo, home to the Cassidys. My Uncle Leo was an autodidact who had bicycled around Ireland after it gained independence. He knew the history of every little town we drove through, an education on my roots I couldn’t have gained elsewhere. As memorable as the connection to my uncle was, the little shop we stopped in one day changed my life. I bought a copy of “The Great Hunger” by Cecil Woodham-Smith, which I read on that trip, and an album by Planxty because the shop was playing this tune.

Twenty years later, I began writing my own novel of the famine, and this song accompanied me on that journey and figures in an early, key scene.

A heart-thumping 800 steps if you listen to it twice to try to get the words when you’re not familiar with the brogue. I’ll save you the trouble. Here’s the story it tells.

The Raggle Taggle Gypsy

(Traditional)

There were three old gypsies came to our hall door They came brave and boldly-o And one sang high and the other sang low And the other sang a raggle taggle gypsy-o

It was upstairs downstairs the lady went Put on her suit of leather-o And there was a cry from around the door She’s away wi’ the raggle taggle gypsy-o

It was late that night when the Lord came in Enquiring for his lady-o And the servant girl she said to the Lord “She’s away wi’ the raggle taggle gypsy-o”

“Then saddle for me my milk white steed - my big horse is not speedy-o And I will ride till I seek my bride She’s away wi’ the raggle taggle gypsy-o”

Now he rode East and he rode West He rode North and South also Until he came to a wide open plain It was there that he spied his lady-o

“How could you leave your goose feather bed Your blankeys strewn so comely-o? And how could you leave your newly wedded Lord All for a raggle taggle gypsy-o?”

“What care I for my goose feather bed Wi’ blankets strewn so comely-o? Tonight I lie in a wide open field In the arms of a raggle taggle gypsy-o”

“How could you leave your house and your land? How could you leave your money-o? How could you leave your only wedded Lord All for a raggle taggle gypsy-o?”

“What care I for my house and my land? What care I for my money-o? I’d rather have a kiss from the yellow gypsy’s lips I’m away wi’ the raggle taggle gypsy-o!”

Ricardo Walker’s Evolution of Dance

For those days when you don’t know what jam you’re in the mood for, click on this video to get a taste of them all. I’ve mimicked these fab dancers all the way through, and stopped to look up the original to dance one song to the end.

Either way, this is a fantastic way to get out of your head and into the music of the ages, or at least the last seventy years.

Anything Goes, because it’s all in the family.

Felix McTigue, who wrote one of the songs that made FGL hit the charts, is married to my cousin. I met him when he was just plain Ed and a struggling musician. He and Elizabeth were visiting San Francisco before he put a ring on it and came to a reading my writing group and I hosted. I remember him as sweet as she was, and so I think of family every time I play this one.

All That Jazz, Catherine Zeta-Jones version

If you have even a passing interest in dance, you have to give a shoutout to Bob Fosse. I love all of Chicago, the city and the show, but I particularly love Zeta-Jones’ version because she told how hard she had to work to get her dancing chops back after age, babies and inactivity almost took her out of the running. For my money, she nails it.

I can slap my behind, and leer into the mirror, but as far as falling all over sexy men, that’s a thing of the past for me. Yet, what better way to get a thousand or so steps in than a trip down memory lane when I could do the splits with the best of them.

Hey Big Spender from Sweet Charity

Get your bump and grind on with this classic, another Bob Fosse number. It’s also a good cool down if you do a long workout and have yourself a dance party. But whether you use it to warm up or cool down, these dance girls will lure into trouble, likely tripping over the coffee table if you don’t watch where you’re putting your two left feet.

So that’s my collection for today. Most days I can dance to the music in my head, which might be a tune that’s playing over and over. Chatanooga Choo Choo is one that’s been accompanying me throughout my day lately, even when I haven’t turned on a device. I like the song, but I’d like to find the off switch in my brain. Maybe switch it out for one of the numbers in Richard Walker’s Evolution of Dance.

But that’s the way it goes when you have a brain like mine, stubborn as the day is long. You can ask some of my friends about that. Fortunately, they are staying inside too and plan to be around when this whole nightmarish pandemic is over. I’m sure they’d be glad to tell some tales on me. Just ask them to do it to music.

Now, I’m supposed to tag some people to write about their favorite music. You don’t have to make it pandemic music, but the music you grew up with, or learned to love when got older, or the music that just helps you get through life. Whatever comes to you, let’s hear it, Andrew Hill, Peggy Gillespie Hazelwood, Carol Piasente, Marguerite Floyd, C Hardin Hansen, and anyone else who feels the beat.

I’m an editor and writer on Medium with Top Writer status. I’m also an editor for the publication, Rogues Gallery. I’ve published 55 titles on Amazon and edit for private clients. If you’d like to hire me as your editor for fiction, non-fiction, or business writing, please contact me here. If you’d like to read more of my work on Medium, click here to sign up for my newsletter. I’ll make sure you don’t miss a word. Thank you for reading.