The instructors always started the group lessons at rock bottom for the benefit of the newest dance students, many of whom would be attending their first party. Like the good-looking ex-military guy across from her, Linda thought. Ricardo painstakingly showed a triple step and a rock step, as all the men followed along with him, moving rhythmically from side to side.
After showing the men the basic step, Ricardo turned around and showed the women their counterpart step, which was a mirror-image of the men's step. To be a good sport and a good advanced student, Linda rock-stepped and triple-stepped along with them. After they had done the step sufficiently well to Ricardo's liking, he returned to the center of the room. "It's time to take a partner and try this in dance position!" He lifted himself on his toes and counted the men and women in the room. "Gentlemen, it looks like we have more ladies here than guys, so those are really good odds! Get yourself a partner, everybody!"
Linda thought about making a beeline for the nice looking new guy, but Ginny swooped in on him like a pelican stabbing at a fish in the breakers. She smirked when Ricardo told everybody to get into dance position, and Linda settled on the bald plumber. In a huge group lesson, all of the men got to dance with all of the different women over the course of the hour.
Ricardo showed everyone how to do the side pass and the turn. He did something Linda hoped he would do: since that day's group lesson was large, he arranged everyone in two concentric circles, women on the inside, and men on the outside. Tony would play a little snippet of a cha-cha song, and everyone would try the side pass, or the turn. When the music stopped, the women would move one partner to the left. This further guaranteed that everyone would be able to dance with each other. As Ron had told her many times "It's good to dance with a variety of different guys, different leads, different styles."
The regimented looking newcomer was still three turns away from her. Unless Ricardo stopped the lesson in the next ten minutes, she would be able to dance with him, though. In the meantime, she felt slightly guilty for slighting the other guys by dancing distractedly, not looking at them, and anticipating her turn with the soldier.
Finally it was her turn. He was shorter than Seth, but his face and expressions were much nicer. To Linda he looked like the kind of All-American guy they would put in a commercial for lawn seed. "Hi," she said, introducing herself. "Is this your first time here?"