Photo by Amy Smotherman Burgess

Terry Morrow and Rhonda Becker, an instructor at Dance Dimensions, practice a backhanded turn.

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I remember the very moment I feared learning how to dance. It was 1971 in a gym class at Riceville, Tenn., Elementary School.

We had to square dance with girls for the first time. (Guess it would have been silly if we were square dancing with boys.) I was nervous. After all, I was 11 years old and starting to notice that there were girls in the room. I may have grown up in a house full of women, but I never noticed other girls until then.

Flash forward 38 years later, and I am facing those fears all over again. As part of "Dancing with the Knoxville Stars," a benefit for East Tennessee Children's Hospital, I'm having to learn how to dance correctly. Every beat is a countdown. Every step has to be in place.

By Thursday night, I'll have to appear as if I can master a 2-minute dance routine worked out to a remix of "Stayin' Alive." That 11-year-old boy won't let this one pass without remembering what happened on that day back in gym class.

My gym teacher, a guy, was not happy with the way everyone was dancing. Their moves were sloppy and ill-timed. To him, it was all a mess.

I'm not really sure why it mattered to him so much. We weren't doing a public performance. We were just learning the basics for exercise. Nonetheless, he was furious. We were 11-year-olds who weren't taking this seriously.

So he eyed my side of the gym and pointed at me. I walked forward, and he motioned for me to come to him. I did.

He then pulled out a black marker and wrote a big black "R" on my right hand and a big black "L" on my left.

"This is your right hand!" he said to me and the class, "and this is your left hand!" It was a pretty cruel thing to do in retrospect.

The other kids laughed. I was mortified. Since then, I've never wanted to learn how to dance properly.

It's about time I got over it.

So this whole "Dancing with the Knoxville Stars" thing is as much about me letting that go as anything else. In the process, a sick child, who has more to face than having marker on his hands, can be helped.

Facing a fear isn't such a bad trade-off when you look at it that way.

Terry Morrow may be reached at 865-342-6445. His blog can be found at http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/telebuddy/.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel
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