June 19

Breaking news of the week: I have been dancing. Couple dancing. This is news because it is far beyond my comfort zone. I dance – but only alone or in the kitchen with my husband. When I danced this week it was with a customer.

I’ll give you the whole story. I went to Lycksele to give a lecture about Sustainable development in fish farming. They invited me to have dinner with them the evening before the lecture, which I happily accepted. They are nice people and I looked forward to have extra time with them and catch up with the latest news about fish farming and aqua culture. We were around 20 people and the dinner was as nice as I expected. After the dinner, the manager told everybody, there would be a surprise . “I wonder what that will be and I if I should attend this surprise”, I thought to myself. I’m not very fond of surprises when I’m at work. And you know the feeling of being the only one who is not part of the company and people start to get a bit drunk. I decided I would be off if it didn’t feel comfortable, I could always give the excuse that I had to… call somebody… or sleep… or find my hotel room… I don’t know what would be an acceptable excuse when you are invited to a dinner and the clock is just 8.30 pm.

The surprise showed up and turned out to be a couple that would teach us couple dancing. My heart sank. Why? I’ll tell you:

1. We very only ¼ women in the group. I suddenly understood why they needed me. A traditional dancing couple is made out of two – a man and a woman. Thus, no way out, no excuses would be accepted.
2. I can’t dance. I totally do not dance. I get really shy and sweaty. I trip on people’s toes. I make a fool of my self.
3. I needed their respect for the lecture next morning and this would totally ruin in. They would look at me like the woman who flattened their toes instead of the person who inspired them to become more sustainable.
4. Darn!!! 

But fortune was on my side. I found a man from Afghanistan.

Me: Salam aleikum!

Him: (Smiling) Salam aleikum!

Me: I’m sorry, I’m a disaster when it comes to dancing. I’m from the south of Sweden and we don’t do couple dancing there.

Him: Me too. I have never been dancing with a woman. It’s forbidden since I’m a Muslim.

Me: Oh, but are you ok with this anyways? You know, you don’t have to do it. (Hoping for him find his way out and then rescue me from it. We could go to the bar and drink juice instead, and he could help me develop me Arabian vocabulary)

Him: No, it’s ok. I’ll do it.

Me: Ok, lets do it.

So we danced and we made the best out of it. And I must say; we were good at it. We were the perfect couple. We danced and both of us were so careful and modest to each other. And we smiled all the time. After one hour I found it possible to thank the host for the evening and excused myself with “I really have to... take care of my... you know... stuff... work... you know".  Nobody was offended and nobody had flat toes beach of me.

The lecture the next day was maybe one of the best I have done. I think they loved it.