dance regularly

How I did it: I love, love, love to dance. But I go ages between concerts and basically never go to clubs (I don't drink and none of my friends nearby are into that kind of dancing and I would feel kinda weird going alone). So I've been living a sadly dance-deprived existence. Bopping around the kitchen while I'm making dinner doesn't quite cut it.

The kind of dancing I prefer is energetic, clubby dancing, so belly dancing lessons and the like wouldn't provide my fix. I had resigned myself to car dancing and the odd Trampled By Turtles concert. When I made "dance regularly" one of my 43Things goals, I didn't know how I was going to do it.

Then I was at the Y where I work out a few times a week and saw a poster advertising their new Zumba class. The poster showed sweaty people dancing. The official Zumba slogan is "Ditch the workout, join the party!" What the heck. I signed up for the first class.

There were women of a very wide range of ages and fitness levels, which was reassuring. (I love to dance, but that doesn't mean I'm the most coordinated or rhythmic person in the world.) The class was really fun. I signed up for the whole class series and have been going 1-2 times a week for a few weeks now. I look forward to it and always leave sweaty and happy.

Lessons & tips: Tips
* Find a fellow dance fiend and make a standing date to go dancing at a club.

* Take a dance class series. Paying for a series in advance is a great way to ensure that you will follow through - don't want to waste that money, do you?

If your significant other doesn't dance (mine doesn't) or if you're flying solo, there are plenty of dances that don't require a partner. Flamenco, belly and tap are a few examples. And often even classes for "partner" dances like tango don't require you to supply a partner.

* Check out Zumba. Classes are held around the USA and I think around the world. The class I go to has been 100% women every time, so if you're self-conscious or shy or have a sweetie who doesn't dig the idea of you club-hopping without him/her, Zumba may be for you. It's a great workout too. (They aren't paying me to shill for them, I swear.)

* Start small and get regular dance doses with "car dancing." I often make a 30-mile drive on a usually-empty highway. That is car dancing time for me. I crank my dance-friendly Pandora station and shimmy and bounce in the car. Yes, I'm a dork. No, I don't care. I am having too much fun to care.

For obvious safety reasons, I wouldn't recommend rocking out too hard if you're driving on, say, Highway 1 just past the Golden Gate Bridge in rush hour, when there are like six lanes of traffic each way and everybody's going 80*. But if you're on a mellow drive and still paying attention (of course), car dance away!

*Exaggerating, but only a little bit.

Resources: Zumba (pronounced zoom-ba)

Pandora Radio (free and awesome)
I listen in the car through the Pandora app on my iPhone. The iPhone connects to my car speaker system with a converter thingy.

Sep 28, 07:58AM PDT | 0 comments