Dance, Dance

Today we went on one of our many end-of-the-year field trips. This time it was to the skating rink. We took about 80 kids. In case anyone was wondering, the skating rink is EXACTLY THE SAME as it was whenever you were there last. All skating rinks across America are basically identical, as are the children and situations that go on inside. Middle school kids going around in circles and working really incredibly hard at being cool, some succeeding more than others.

The only thing different from the ghetto skating rink and your normal one is what happened about an hour before we left. A huge group of kids had circled up, and some were yelling. At school, this usually indicates a fight. But for those of us who have chaperoned a dance, or basically any time free time, it was as expected: a dance-off. The dance-off consists of everyone standing in a circle, with two people on the inside "battling." The crowd decides who does better, and the one who lost goes back into the circle and someone else comes to battle the winner.

The DJ had realized that everyone was leaving the rink to go watch the dance-off, so he got in on the action. They cleared the floor and proceeded to have the dance-off in the middle of the rink, with the whole crowd standing around deciding who won.

Even after all this time in the ghetto, I've never seen something that was basically a scene out of Step Up. It was amazing.