Terrible dancer tries San Diego classes
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Rollies on our wrists (sort of). GIF: Claire Trageser/Axios
👋🏻 Claire here! I am truly a terrible dancer (no, really, I am). An actual scientific experiment once found I have less rhythm than a cockatoo.
Why it matters: Undeterred by science, I made it my new year's resolution to take a dance class.
Yes, but: I didn't actually think I was going to do it.
State of play: I did not factor in the Axios readers who swelled to support me in my quest.
- They recommended dance classes to try.
- Two especially wonderful readers volunteered to try classes with me.
- I had no excuse.
Zoom in: We set out on a dancing journey, trying classes across the city, including:
🎶👟 Tap Fever in Pacific Beach, a nonprofit that has kids and adult classes. On the day we went, our loyal reader Kate and I basically had a private class. Very low-key and not intimidating.
🎧🔥 Culture Shock near the airport, also a nonprofit but with wildly popular classes. Not low-key. I felt like I was in the middle of a music video. I could barely follow the hip-hop dance routine, but had fun anyway.
💃💦 Toby Wells YMCA, which has cardio hip-hop dance classes. This class was less about learning a routine and more about just working up a sweat and dancing. Again, I was truly terrible but couldn't stop smiling.
What they're saying: "Parents have, quite frankly, 5 million other things that they need to be doing, but they choose to come to class, and that, to me, is really special," Alexandra Dickson, the owner of Lynch Dance Institute in Poway, told Axios.
- That's why she loves teaching adult classes. Her classes are grown-ups' own special carved-out time, so they aren't going to hold back.
- "Check your shame at the door and just go in," she said.
Inside the dance room: And that's what I did. I probably won't get much better (and will never be as good as Kate!), but I plunged into a new experience with no shame.
Clearly, as you can tell from the above GIF.