My Most Embarrassing Moment

I was participating in a dance festival, a performance showcasing lots of different types of dancing. My partner and I had been asked to be in a hoe-down dance- a small performance in between the big group performances. In the dance, there were three lifts. On the last lift, signalling the end of the dance, all of the boys formed a circle, and all of the girls sat on the boys clasped arms, facing outwards. Then, while the boys circled, the girls waved to the audience. We had practiced this many times, and were ready. A sure sign of impending disaster.

On the night of the performance, when the last lift came, I lost my balance. Instead of sitting on the arms of the two boys beside me, I fell over backward so that I was hanging by my knees on their arms as if they were some jungle gym. My hair was brushing the floor, and my backside was...um....facing the audience. By great fortune, my skirt had gotten caught under my knees, saving myself from complete exposure. My poor partner was freaking out as we circled those last endless few measures of the dance, me hanging on for dear life. When the music ended, they let me down carefully so that I was sitting on the floor. I looked at the audience, mostly politely applauding the dance. What was I going to do? I was already completely humiliated. I got up, and took a bow. The audience cheered.

That should have been the end of it, but it wasn't. I was at a dance several months later, and was laughingly telling my dance partner about my embarrassing tumble. He looked at me and said, "That was YOU??!?" Surprised, I asked if he had been at the festival, and he replied, "No, I saw the video tape!" He ended up asking me out on a few dates, mostly because I had the courage to take that bow at the end.

But there's a video tape out there. A reminder that embarrassment and humiliation are eternal.