Dancing

I mentioned a little while ago that Omri turns out to be a bona fide dancing bear.  Laszlo, who is a trained tap dancer (he was never a professional, but this was mostly just because he wanted a career in government), was delighted when this came up in conversation.  So the two of them have taken to dancing in the evenings most days.  Here they are:

Some caution is required in dancing with Omri, since he's got pretty impressive claws, but he and Laszlo seem to have worked that out.

Omri's pretty good at other types of dancing, too.  He was pretty excited when he found out that AJD and I have been going salsa-dancing lately, although disappointed to learn that bears aren't allowed to go.  But he offered to help AJD figure out a few tricks.  It's much harder to go social salsa-dancing as a beginner when you're a guy.  Girls have it easy; you just sort of let the guy twirl you around and try to stay on the right foot.  Guys are expected to know how to do the twirling.  Here are Omri and AJD practising.

AJD says that there are obvious readjustments in technique when one is salsa-dancing with a bear, but not so many as you'd think.

Omri's first love, naturally, is vaudeville, so he and AJD have been having some fun with that too.  I took this picture last night when they were working on their rendition of "Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear."*

* This song, interestingly, is sort of the reverse of "If You Could See Her Through My Eyes" from Cabaret, if you know what I mean.