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Dance: Just Go Ahead and Do It!

When I tell someone I'm going to dance class, the reaction I get is often something like Gee, I wish I could do that. I can feel the curiosity and the surprise and just a little bit of envy. And sometimes maybe just a little confusion because dance class is for kids, right? But mostly I just get the sense that people are surprised because I'm taking a ballet, jazz, or tap dance class as an adult, which is just not something most people do when they're not involved in theater.


Taking a dance class for fun (or taking any other kind of class as an adult beginner) seems to be a relative rarity in my age group, but I don't think it's because people don't want to do new things. Tell someone you're taking a class - not an accounting class but a pottery class or a karate class or a photography class - and their eyes will light up and they'll say (or you'll know they're thinking), Gee, I wish I could do that.

Especially a dance class. But here's the thing about dance classes when you're an adult. Once you get past the age where there's a chance you might show promise as a professional dancer, once you're past that magical age where putting on a leotard is still NBD... once you've got a job and boring grownup responsibilities, dance is still there.

It's there if you've danced most of your life like me, or if you want to come back to ballet, jazz, or tap dance after a break. Dance class is there if you're a total ballet newbie and have always secretly wanted to learn to dance en pointe (Note: it can be done!). It's there if your body is about as different from a prima ballerina's as you can possibly get. And whether you're dreaming of dancing on a stage again or the idea of dancing in front of people makes you want to bazooka barf, you can dance.

Repeat after me: You. Can. Dance.


And the same thing is true if your secret passion is painting or canning or piano or French or Swahili or soccer or fencing. You don't have to be six years old to start doing something to have fun or even to get good. It just takes a while to learn something new, the same way it does when you're six. The big difference is that when you're six, you expect learning something new to take a while and it doesn't bother you to be bad at something.

So the next time you're looking at a flyer for community theater auditions or you're thinking about riding horses or fixing your own car and your first thought is, Gee, I wish I could do that, what I'd like you to do is shift your script and say, Let's do that! 

Because you can.



Want to tap dance? Christa T. teaches group and private tap lessons for adults
and kids at various North Shore venues, and is now teaching adult tap classes at Dance Enthusiasm​ in Salem​ on Thursdays! More info: http://www.danceenthusiasm.org/contact/​​​. She’s also available for classes wherever students want to hold them around Beverly, Salem, Peabody, and anywhere in the North Shore. Whether you've never put on a pair of tap shoes or you want to get back into tap dancing, whether you're 8 or 80, tap instructor Christa knows you can do it!

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