Manners & Awareness
Hogs on the Dance Floor
Real hogs: People who disregard others and don’t follow safety rules.
Synopsis
We go to dinner and dancing at City Fire in The Villages to live music five or six nights a week. Dancers are generally polite and courteous, but there are always a few exceptions. I don’t know if they are blind, stupid, or just plain bullies, but we still have to watch out for them. Here are a few examples:
Dance Space Hog
Unlike the city block in my Hogs on the Town Square article referenced below, the dance floor is fairly small. Of course, that doesn’t make much difference if there are only two or three couples dancing, but it does if the floor is full and people are sharing space with a dance floor hog.
Vigorous or structured steps take up lots of space and may cause collisions. Most couples take a small area, but we have two ballroom-dancing couples that can use a lot of the floor. If you ever watch Fred Astair movies, you will see how much space they can take.
One couple, the clueless, do not adjust to the number of dancers on the floor. One move where they stretch out holding the partner’s hand and flailing the other hand behind them takes a quarter of floor space. If the floor is full, they take the space of 6 or 8 other couples.
Sometimes, they are unaware of where they are stepping, especially behind them. It was the first time I ever had someone step on MY foot.
The other couple, the experts, are aware of their surroundings at all times. They adjust the length of their steps if the floor is full. They do the same steps as the first couple, but they may be a foot apart and their hands are down their side instead of stretched out.
They adjust for empty, partial, or full dance floors. Fortunately, we never have a packed floor where couples constantly collide with each other.
Drink Hog
City Fire announces that drinks are not allowed on the dance floor, unlike the outside square where they use plastic cups. There are plenty of ledges, shelves and side tables to put drinks, but the hogs don’t pay any attention.
Recently, a woman brought her glass of wine onto the floor. Most of the time, the problem is that they spill their drinks on other dancers. However, this time someone knocked the drink out of her hand. It shattered when it hit the floor, spreading glass shards and wine everywhere.
Besides being irritating, it puts some people in danger. One woman had taken off her shoes to go dancing. Not too smart since anything could be on the floor, like broken glass.
Others could have cut themselves by attempting to clean up the mess with cloth napkins while trying to be helpful. Not only did they endanger themselves when they could get cut, but also the laundry workers if they left glass shards in the napkins.
Fortunately, City Fire got it cleaned up quickly.
Access Hogs
This action does not impact the dance floor itself but access to it. Most of the time a person just puts their chair too far into the aisle. The servers and dancers must squeeze through or take another route.
One man’s chair was no problem while facing the table. He turned it towards the band and hung his foot completely across the aisle. Nobody could get through without stepping over his leg or asking him to move.
Another way to block the same aisle is just to put the chair there, like this:
Another person brought in a medium-sized dog on a leash. It did not sit under the table. First, it sat in the aisle. Then they got a chair, put it in the aisle, and had the dog sit in the chair facing the table. I hope that it was a registered service dog and had a right to be in the restaurant. They should have been put at a back table, if one was available, instead of one next to the dance floor.
Most aisles between the tables are fairly narrow. One is wider for wheelchairs and people with walkers. These people could have stayed at their table and talked to their friends but chose to pull their chairs over and block that aisle. They can't even stand aside if someone needs to get through.
Front Table Hog
The people sitting at the table are not the problem, but the dancers on the floor are.
We never sit at the front table next to the dance floor. It is not the dancing but the people who want to use your table as storage. They put their glasses on your table without asking. Sometimes it is a purse, jacket or something else. Then they get upset if you move them or the server picks them up.
Storage Hog
This is even worse. Some put their drinks on an adjoining table, even if it is occupied. Dancers will come back to their table to find extra drinks.
One guy put his drink on a guitar case near the band instead of the nearby windowsill. These glasses sweat if the outside temperature is warm. The water could damage the guitar case.
Control Hog
One man was meeting friends. They were already seated at the third table from the dance floor and had an empty chair. He went to the first table, put his foot in the aisle, forced his friends to move to the first table next to the dance floor, sat on the table instead of a chair, then pushed an empty chair into the aisle.
Conclusion
There are many other examples and variations of these. I don’t know if it is a control issue or just plain cluelessness. Either way, such actions cause discomfort to other customers and the staff. Hopefully, some people may recognize themselves and change their ways.
References
- Original article that inspired this one
- Outdoor dance floor large, indoors much smaller