The last time I was in a parade, I was five years old. It started raining, and my father jumped into the parade to shelter me with his umbrella. I got to march along in my little majorette outfit, oblivious to the rain. Happy memories of being in a Christmas parade, long ago. That was the last time… until now.
This past Saturday, my dance class performed at the Nashville Christmas Parade. Our group is called DanceFix, a cardio-style dance class held at Nashville Ballet. DanceFix was founded by Heather Britt in
The first DanceFix class I attended didn’t go so well. I hadn’t danced since college when I was in a modern dance troupe that would perform around campus. It was more performance art than modern dance. One time we performed in the student union, and I remember being part of a kind of Greek chorus in the back chanting, “When are we gonna be there? Tell me a story! Draw me a picture, promise that you love me.” We had to say it over and over while we did some movement and a couple of superstars performed “real” dance moves out front.
Somehow I always got “selected” for speaking parts in dance performances.
In high school, our ballet club performed an ode to Aaron Copland, wearing red and white checkered skirts and short red suede boots (I know, doesn’t sound like ballet, does it?). I “got to” say the lines, “Ladies and Gentlemen: Please Be Seated!” in the middle of the number. I see a trend here: “hey, we have a special part for you!” I never questioned why I was getting speaking parts in dances… perhaps my dance ability was not up to par?
Cut to years later when I wanted to go back to a dance class. Where the urge came from, I wasn’t sure, but I knew that I had always loved being in a dance studio ever since I was hanging from the ballet bars at Mrs. Wall’s, which was a converted garage in her house. They reprimanded me for “acting like a monkey — no hanging on the bars!”
Mrs. Wall played a dusty record over and over for our warmup.
It was a pianist and some woman with a crisp voice giving instruction, a precursor to Siri’s voice: “Rond de
Remember in Friends, the episode where Monica has her credit card stolen? She realizes the woman who stole it is leading a far more interesting life than Monica had been. So Monica goes to do some of the same things and meets the woman at a tap class. At the end of the episode, Monica goes back to the tap class by herself, and you know she’s ready to forge uncharted paths of trying new things.
That’s what DanceFix gave me: the chance to push myself, get out of a “comfort zone,” and challenge my brain in new ways.
The first time I went to a class, I went to the restroom and thought about leaving. When you don’t know the choreography, it’s very intimidating to walk into a class and start moving. You feel like Lucille Ball in the candy factory. But I realized what a great workout it was even if you didn’t know the
So I decided to keep going, and I would stand behind an instructor or student who knew all the moves, and I would do what they did a beat late. It was like those dance video games, except I was lagging behind. But eventually I started to catch on, and it’s rewarding when parts of your brain start firing up that you haven’t used in a while. Keeping track of and remembering the choreography became a fun brain challenge as well as the physical challenge of getting all the moves down.
When you seek out new challenges or adventures, having supportive mentors makes the whole thing easier and more fun.
Our DanceFix instructors are special people who cultivate a welcoming environment. Even the choreography is inclusive as we do a lot of dances with a circle where we face each other. There is a lot of high-fiving and encouraging one another. And if I may take this moment to apologize to the beautiful girl I kicked in the face: I am so sorry. You were so sweet about it, and I wish you’d come back to class. I promise I am more aware of my spacial issues now.
So when our group was dancing in the parade this year, I said, “Sure, why not?” Because life is short and we need to do the fun and ridiculous things that bring us joy, with people who have the same attitude. Recently I attended TedX Nashville, and one of the speakers talked about Joy Hunting. She said we need to hunt for the things that give us joy and do them. Friday night after work, I ran by Wall-Mart and found an Elf Sweater Dress, and Saturday morning I headed down to Bridgestone Arena on my last day of being 48. The DanceFix team from Cincinnati came down to join us, including founder Heather Britt. We weren’t marching in the parade, but rather dancing right in front of Bridgestone
It’s a surreal version of Santa’s workshop, hanging out in the Bridgestone Arena atrium beforehand.
My friend’s Salsa group was there, decked out in Santa and Mrs. Claus outfits. There was a troupe of middle school girls clad in red and green all-sequin dresses. We waited and around, rehearsed, caught up with each other. One dancer I talked to — we’ll call her Elle — said that DanceFix has been good for her in ways that it has made her stretch. “I had to get used to doing something that wasn’t going to be perfect right away. And it’s good for my brain to do something artistic, the whole right-brain/left-brain thing, as I work with numbers all day.”
When it was time for our number, we lined up outside and waited for 10 minutes or so. We had to stand aside to make way for dancers clad in reindeer unitards — who were they? And as silly as my elf dress is, I am really glad I didn’t have to wear the brown velvet unitard. When the Monroe Carell Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital Riverboat Float came rolling down, that was our cue. The Swan Brothers stepped out to perform “Run, Run, Rudolph,” and we fanned out around them to dance. But the professional reindeer dancers were center stage. Oh well, we didn’t care, we were there to have fun! And
You may not want to go to a dance class or be in a parade.
But what are the things that either you used to do that you’d like to rediscover, or maybe there’s something totally new that you think about trying? Go do it. Sign up for that fencing class. Join a mahjong league. Sit down with your easel and a Bob Ross video and make some happy little accidents. Be like Monica in that Friends episode and go clicking and clacking into your tap class. It’s like one of my favorite quotes from Alan Alda:
” You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition…What you discover will be wonderful. What you will discover will be yourself.”
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To read my post about DanceFix instructor, Thea Jones, click here: Thea Jones and the Wild, Yellow Brick Road
For my last post, click here: How We Rocked Jolabokaflod
To learn more about DanceFix classes, click here: Nashville Ballet Adult Community Division Classes
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