My wonderful wife loves to dance. She's done all kinds of dance, ever since she was a kid taking tap dance lessons in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. She and her late second husband started the contra dance in this area, and she goes to contra dances twice a month if she can.

My friend Larry always reports how he danced with my wife the other night.

So, I go to contra dances three or four times a year, to make sure my wife doesn't get too thrilled with Larry. But it hurts to dance, and so it isn't much fun. I've been to contra dances enough that I know the moves and I can do it reasonably well, but I tighten up and then my muscles and joints ache like hell, and I get out of breath because I think I'm doing things in a way that takes too much energy. It seems to me that if I could just loosen up, all this wouldn't hurt so much and wouldn't tire me out.

Oh, and then there's waltzing. I've taken a number of waltz classes, and each one seems to make it more difficult for me. At our wedding reception almost 14 years ago, I took my bride out on the floor without instruction and it was a lot of fun waltzing to "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You" to the dulcet tones of the St. John Vianney Men's Choir. But now that I've had a few lessons, waltzing hurts.

So, how can I learn to waltz and contra dance without it hurting so much?

-Joe-