Saturday, September 20, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
God, I'm a dancer
Last night was a big night for me. I attended my first dance class in 8 years!
I grew up dancing and from the time I was 3 took class weekly. As I improved, I practically lived at the studio. When I wasn't taking class, I was assisting the teachers in their non-competition classes. By the time I was 14, I was at the studio 7 days most weeks.
In college I danced almost daily in classes and rehearsals.
After college, the dancing stopped. My busiest years as a professional performer have yielded only 3 shows. I'm almost always cast in musicals, but dancing isn't always required. If it is, rarely do I have to do anything very intense. Years passed and I continued to miss taking dance classes.
The reason I waited so long to get back into a dance class is simple: I don't do recitals. It was so difficult for me to find a studio that didn't require one. I finally stumbled across The Fit Physique. They do an annual informal performance in studio for friends and family only. No recital hall, no costume, nothing. I was sold.
I went to Intermediate Jazz last night. We started off with stretching and some technique work. Man am I rusty. Not only have I lost all my strength and flexibility, I'm carting around WAY more bulk than I did back in my hard-core dancing days. After the technique work came the "across the floor" work. This was our chance to incorporate our technique work into more locomotive movements. This was fun. While I can't kick my face, everything still works pretty much as it used to. It was super fun.
My only critique of the class was all the time wasted on social chatter. I'm paying to take class, not chat. Let's dance (since that's what we're here for) and chat at the bar (not the barre...tee hee hee) afterwards. I'm going to chalk it up to "it was the first week back and everyone was excited to see each other".
Even if the chatter continues, my elation after class far outweighed my annoyance.
I'm going back tonight for Intermediate Tap :)
I grew up dancing and from the time I was 3 took class weekly. As I improved, I practically lived at the studio. When I wasn't taking class, I was assisting the teachers in their non-competition classes. By the time I was 14, I was at the studio 7 days most weeks.
In college I danced almost daily in classes and rehearsals.
After college, the dancing stopped. My busiest years as a professional performer have yielded only 3 shows. I'm almost always cast in musicals, but dancing isn't always required. If it is, rarely do I have to do anything very intense. Years passed and I continued to miss taking dance classes.
The reason I waited so long to get back into a dance class is simple: I don't do recitals. It was so difficult for me to find a studio that didn't require one. I finally stumbled across The Fit Physique. They do an annual informal performance in studio for friends and family only. No recital hall, no costume, nothing. I was sold.
I went to Intermediate Jazz last night. We started off with stretching and some technique work. Man am I rusty. Not only have I lost all my strength and flexibility, I'm carting around WAY more bulk than I did back in my hard-core dancing days. After the technique work came the "across the floor" work. This was our chance to incorporate our technique work into more locomotive movements. This was fun. While I can't kick my face, everything still works pretty much as it used to. It was super fun.
My only critique of the class was all the time wasted on social chatter. I'm paying to take class, not chat. Let's dance (since that's what we're here for) and chat at the bar (not the barre...tee hee hee) afterwards. I'm going to chalk it up to "it was the first week back and everyone was excited to see each other".
Even if the chatter continues, my elation after class far outweighed my annoyance.
I'm going back tonight for Intermediate Tap :)
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