The blue moon light spread over the quiet fish village. Walking on the beach, I was amazed to see the spectacularly bright full moon highly hanging on the navy blue sky. There is a legend about the blue moon which only appears every 28 years. It is said that the blue moon will bring people wonderful blessings in the coming new year if they have a chance to see it on the end of the year.

I came all the way down from Taichung to attend a year-end counting down party. My dance teachers, Radu and Lana, were invited to perform at the party. Shyi-Dong was at work and I hated to stay home alone during the turn of the year.

Even though it was a small remote fishing village, the party attracted all the professional and amateur dancers far and near. Obviously it was quite a special event because the dance floor was packed. Standing alone by the dance floor watching people dance, I felt like a fish out of water. Fortunately, it didn’t take me too long to spot a few faces I knew. They were the students who took dance lessons at the same studio which I used to go to many years ago. It seemed that they never gave up dancing because they were still in the competition. Since I hadn’t seen them for years, I was quite interested in the progress they had made over those years. However, it was a pity to see that they remained at the same level and I doubted where they could head for in their dance competitions.

Radu and Lana did a terrific job in their performance. The audience went wild and treated them like superstars. Dancing is my love, I have been taking lessons with Shyi-Dong for nearly 13 years. However, the longer we danced, the more frustrated we felt. We felt hopeless in dance until we met Radu and Lana two years ago. The lack of qualified international standard dance teachers in Taiwan is the same problem as the lack of English teachers. It is the reason my old dance friends never made improvement after practicing hard for years. Shyi-Dong and I were very grateful that we finally found good teachers, Radu and Lana who transformed us in dance.

Over the loud music and fireworks, the audience roared counting down from ten to one. The year of 2010 arrived; everyone cheered. The party was over; in a wink, the crowd all left. Radu and Lana walked beside me to the parking lot. The cold damp sea wind gently touched my face; the rhythm of drumbeats softly rang in my ears; I walked quietly in the darkness. My mind was churned with what Shyi-Dong and I went through in dance and the pictures of our old friends’ dance competition. Radu and Lana were puzzled why I was so quiet after an exciting party.

The blue moon was shinning over us. In the dark, my cell phone lit up. A text message appeared on the screen: Happy New Year to you. May dance keep you witty and charming.

Yeah, I know the year of 2010 will be a good year, a year to dance straight through!

Bih-Hua Chen
January 1, 2010