Free The Ballroom Class by Lucy Dillon

challenge, dancing forward, changing hands in a little spin as Frank spun behind her, then they stepped straight back into the basic step, in perfect time, and with no apparent effort.
    Katie stared in amazement. It was so smooth! Frank looked like the sort of man who only got excited about lawnmower catalogues.
    ‘Woah woah woah!’ said Lauren. ‘Slow down, Dad! I didn’t get any of that!’
    ‘That’s a bit advanced,’ said Angelica, as Frank twirled her again, this time with his hand over her head. ‘Now! OK! Enough! I think we’ve had a preview there of what your dad’ll be doing at your wedding reception,’ she said, patting her chest, pretending to get her breath back, as Frank returned, pink with effort, to Bridget’s side.
    Katie flicked a nervous glance up at Ross, but he seemed to be hanging on Angelica’s words.
    ‘We’ll do it together, to start with,’ said Angelica. She shouted out the steps as they stamped painfully from one foot to the other. ‘Keep it small . And now the lady’s steps  . . . Other foot, Katie!’
    Thanks, thought Katie, muddling up her left and her right foot again. Draw attention to me, why don’t you?
    Angelica’s eyes were everywhere, and her tone swooped from encouragement to gentle teasing to pretend dismay. ‘Don’t step out , Chris, you’re not doing aerobics, just transfer your weight from one side to the other, and back step, that’s it! That’s it, Lauren – if he carries on galumphing we’ll just box him in with two chairs. I usually have to box someone in till they get it, don’t worry  . . . Now, it’ll all make sense once I put some music on. What do you fancy, Bill Haley? Some Elvis? Let’s have a look  . . .’
    Angelica started ‘Summertime Blues’ on her CD player, clicking her fingers loudly to the beat.
    Katie watched the two older couples enviously as they swayed with minimal effort, their actions gliding elegantly from one into the next. They made it look so easy, as if they were the teenagers, and the rest of them were the old crocks, shuffling awkwardly through the basics. She wondered why they were there at all, but if Angelica wondered that too, she didn’t show it.
    ‘Oh, Baxter, you’ve got a lovely action there,’ she said, sashaying up behind them, mirroring Peggy’s steps. ‘Peggy, you’re a lucky lady.’
    ‘Thank you, I know,’ said Peggy, her Hush Puppies making no sound on the parquet, as Baxter swung her out, spinning her in a step they’d probably learned twenty years before Katie was born. She kept checking his face for signs, Katie noticed, and then checking Angelica’s for approval.
    The other two, the Armstrongs, were much less showy, dancing with each other as if they were just at a wedding, and the smiles they flashed occasionally were sweet ‘remember this?’ ones.
    ‘It’s all coming back to me now!’ she heard Mrs Armstrong giggle as they passed.
    Next to them, Chris swung Lauren the wrong way, nearly dislocating her arm.
    ‘Ow!’ she yelped, clutching her shoulder and glaring at him with a mixture of annoyance and surprise. ‘Chris!’
    ‘You were going the wrong way,’ he explained.
    ‘No, she wasn’t!’ said Angelica. ‘Here, let me show you again  . . .’ And she took over from Chris, one hand slipping easily around Lauren’s waist, even though Lauren towered over her. ‘Slow, slow, and back, and slow, slow, lift-your-hand-on-the-slow-so-she-knows-you’re-going-to-spin and slow and slow, and there you are.’
    To Lauren’s visible surprise, they’d executed a flawless turn, so neatly that her pink mouth dropped open. ‘Wow!’ she said. ‘Chris, quick, try again before I forget how to do it.’
    And she grabbed him and started counting.
    If they can do it, I should be able to, thought Katie, and turned back to Ross.
    ‘Want another go?’ she asked. ‘Before the music stops?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Ross, and smiled.
    She could feel there was something in the rock’n’roll