This is the second part of a series chronicling Ethan Hartley’s journey towards competing in the Dancing with the Stars of Mentoring fundraiser May 2.

Like many people, I have fallen victim to armchair analytics in the past. That basically means underestimating or dismissing the difficulty of something you see somebody else doing, often times thinking or openly expressing the belief that you could perform that task better than them.

We most often see this in the sports world, where people will criticize a basketball player for a bad pass or a baseball player for making a costly error, claiming even they could have handled the situation better than the professional athlete on the screen – usually while the critic, wearing sweatpants and a replica jersey, shovels piles of buttery buffalo wings and fries into their mouth.

While I have certainly been guilty on occasion of being an armchair analyst regarding my favorite sports teams, I don’t think I ever watched a professional dancer and thought, “Yeah, I can do that. Couldn’t be that hard.” Still, had I ever really gotten into programs like “Dancing with the Stars,” I probably would have done so at some point. After all, how difficult can spinning around and moving your arms be?

Well, now that I’m halfway done with my lessons preparing for a short dance routine as part of Mentor Rhode Island’s Dancing with the Stars of Mentoring fundraising event this upcoming May 2, I can say with absolute certainty that I will never trivialize the difficulty of professional dancing for as long as I live.

This stuff is challenging.

It’s not just the physicality of the thing. While I am by no means an endurance runner, I have ran multiple 5Ks, a 10K and even slogged myself through a half marathon once to see how far I could push myself. I’m no couch potato, but by the end of some of these dancing sessions I have been praising the seasonally late cold weather for a change, as my blood is running molten hot.

It’s not just the memorization of steps, although that takes a lot of concentration and preparation to not completely forget what you’re supposed to do from one week to the next.

The difficulty with dancing lies in the details – the unseen, minute complexities that separate a truly technical, good dance from something that looks and feels gawky and awkward. There are correct ways to take steps and incorrect ways to take steps. Bad posture leads to bad steps, and focusing too much on having good posture will lead to you missing steps or winding up in a completely incorrect position.

There is a fluidity to dancing that makes it look beautiful when done correctly, and can derail your entire routine if you break that synchronization even once. It’s not only a physical action, there is so much brain work that you have to simultaneously recognize – but not pay too much attention to – that you must perpetually balance thinking about your next step, but also somehow do each step seamlessly, one after the next, while paying mind to the fundamental dos and don’ts.

My Dancing Feeling professional instructor, Rachael Capodanno, likened it to playing an instrument and singing at the same time. The brain is tasked heavily doing either activity, but doing both at the same time requires significant practice and skill.

Therein lies the challenge of learning something over the course of just 10 sessions, each one spread out by a week of not practicing. To become truly good at this, I would need to put in years of consistent, dedicated practice. For the purposes of this experiment, however, I will need to push my mental and physical abilities to their respective limits in order to attain my goal – winning the judge’s favorite award at the Dancing with the Stars of Mentoring event on May 2 for best technical routine. Dancing with the Stars of Mentoring that includes dinner will be held at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet. Tickets are $85.

One thing is for certain. I have a lot more appreciation for actors and actresses in older movies – like those of Fred Astaire. What they put together in a routine that spans for three times the length of what my short little number will, often in one take, is nothing short of miraculous and worthy of a healthy respect.

I can’t say for sure where my progress will be exactly one month from now, or if I will win the award I seek, but I’m hopeful that I can at least inspire the next armchair analyst to look at my routine and think, “It can’t be that hard.” Let that poor sap put his money where his suede-soled dancing shoes are.

To donate to Ethan’s fundraising campaign to benefit Mentor Rhode Island, go to mentorRI.networkforgood,com/projects/68378-ethan-hartley-s-fundraiser