Several years ago I took dance lessons from Fred Astaire Dance Studios. I learned the Rumba, the Cha-Cha, the Swing, the West Coast Swing, the Foxtrot and others.
While taking these lessons, I met my wife who was taking lessons from an independent instructor. One of the teachers at this studio was an internationally known latin dancer (and later marketed their own set of dance courses).
So I had quite a repertoire during this time.
I went dancing with several people other than my wife at the time. We visited dance clubs, other studios, Dick Clark’s Dance Clubs and more.
Basically, for about three years, if I wasn’t working and my son wasn’t visiting, I was dancing.
And I got married.
After a couple of years together, we decided to renew our dance steps and upgrade them. We met a former dance instructor who was teaching independently. This made it much more affordable compared to studio pricing.
Our new instructor kept referring to a dance move called ripping steel. Since he had an engineering and technical background, I didn’t know how to relate dancing to ripping steel. And then he explained it to me.
“It’s not rippin’ steel. It’s rip and steal.
“You know, you’re flying on an airplane, glancing at one of their magazines and you come across an article or an ad you are really intrigued by. So you ‘rip and steal’ it.”
“How does that apply to dancing?” I asked.
“Most studios will teach you movements for each dance and make you remember the steps to each specific dance. I do it differently. If a step from swing fits into what you are doing in a rumba, you ‘rip and steal’ the swing movement and make it part of your rumba dance.”
“Rip and Steal!”
All of a sudden, the number of moves and steps I had went from a few steps for each type of dance, which most people keep doing over and over again to dozens and dozens of steps, incorporating steps from several different dances into your current song.
Here’s a good example of how it works. I recently came across a video of a couple dancing, They were picked out of the crowd to dance an impromptu dance based on the song the DJ decided to play. The Macarena. Rather than doing the steps everyone knows, they put together a dance that was 80% non-Macarena on a moment’s notice, making the dance their own.
As you go through life, you too will learn to ‘rip and steal’ in order to make beautiful music in your life. This will always lead to your prospering. And one place you can learn to ‘rip and steal’ in our seemingly tyrannical world is by studying Prospering in a Socialist Society, found exclusively at https://TedLeithart.com/prospering-in-a-socialist-society/
