He Said: Dance Class
By Zanger:
Sabrina Miller rang me up a few weeks ago.
“We’re going to do a dance class together,” she said.
“Huh?”
“Pick the one you want to take.”
Knowing that I really had no say and that there would be no negotiation, I went to the NW Dance Project website and took a peek around.
Now, I am not a very good dancer.
I’m not this bad. But, I’m still all about having two left feet.
No one wants to see what passes for hip hop dancing in my world. It’s a little like Elaine from Seinfeld. Only not quite as good.
Ballet? Oof.
Jazz dancing? I’ve got jazz hands down but the dancing part of it? Not so much.
Bhangra and Bollywood was the pick — by a mile. This looked like it would be a great deal of fun and one that could conceivably mask my glaring inability to put steps together.
When we arrived, I was encouraged by the bit of real estate in the back of the class. I was one of two men in the class (aside from the instructor), so I stood out despite trying my hardest to hide.
I was a wee bit nervous.
Our instructor, Prashant, gave us the skinny on Bhangra. It’s supposed to be “fun” dancing. That made me relax instantly. He started the music for warmups and we started moving around. It felt great and everything was going my way.
Next, it was footwork. Since I am a soccer player (kind of), I had this part licked. Sure, there were a few spots where I got a little lost, but I felt like I was keeping up.
Then, it was about incorporating arms, hands and the rest of our bodies.
Uh oh.
This was the where I really showed my lack of grace and, at times, coordination. I can chew bubble gum and walk at the same time and can do that rub-your-belly-pat-your-head-together thing. But, I was clearly out of my league.
And I didn’t care.
I embraced the Jimmy-Arms and did exactly what Prashant told us to do: have fun.
And great fun it was.
Oh, and for the record, Sabrina is a good dancer.
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She Said: Dance Class
By Sabrina:
I was trying to think of things that I could co-write a post on with fellow OurPDX author, Doug Zanger. Trying to think of something that one of us has done or has had experience with in the past and the other that has had none. After saying “Nah” to a play, after saying, “Mmm, I don’t think so” to a museum trip, I finally knew exactly what I wanted to do. Take a dance class. I chuckled at the idea of Doug taking a dance class and even though I hadn’t taken one in years, I knew it would be a fun thing to do. After telling him…”Hey, we are going to take a dance class” I didn’t quite know how he was going to react. Positivity is what I got back.
I decided I really wanted to check out the Northwest Dance Project and after talking with the owner Scott Lewis one day, I knew it was the perfect choice. Now came the hard part for both of us…. choosing a dance class to take. I looked at the classes they had available. Ballet, Lyrical Jazz, Core Balance…hmmm, sounded interesting, but I wanted to be able to walk the next day as I know those types of classes can be challenging. We finally decided that we were going to take the Bhangra-Bollywood class on Monday night. The description from the site reads:
” This class offers a blend of Bhangra, a lively traditional celebratory Indian folk dance with athletic yet graceful full-body movements driven by infections beats, and Bollywood, the energetic, fluid and mystical dance style featured in numerous modern Indian films. A fun and casual class for all with a great blend of contemporary Eastern music.”
It was interesting to me as I’ve never experienced this type of dance before and didn’t know anything about it. I can plié or tondue with the grace of an elephant, but who knew that I would be getting a lesson in head wobbling. The class, taught by a very energetic and charismatic man, Preshant Kakad, was invigorating. I had no idea what to expect. The very first thing we did was jump around to some very cool music. And we jumped and jumped and we smiled and we laughed…we had fun.
After we did our warm up jumping we starting learning footwork and incorporated arms and then…we learned to head wobble. That was fun and really different for me. Everything that I learned in dance was very controlled or very deliberate. Having fun and having it show through the way you danced was a new thing to me and I quickly embraced it. The next hour was learning new moves and putting them together and it was ok to feel a little silly. A few times I looked over at Doug…and even though he wasn’t perfect, you could tell he didn’t care if he got it right, he was having a blast.
Anyone could take this class and I highly recommend that you at least give it a try. I guarantee that you will love it and it’s a great workout too!
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