Dance… A Skill Everyone Should Learn
Everyone has the natural feel for two things, music and connection. When the two combine, something beautiful happens. Dance is a language everybody understands. No matter the ethnicity, race, shape or age, everyone can come together and communicate with a beat and movements.
Ballroom dancing is hands down the best way to connect with your partner. It is passionate and simple, emotional but strong, and intellectual with a connection because it literally takes two to tango.
Ballroom is not just for couples. I found my life partner through ballroom. He walked in as a student and walked out as a partner in life. We fell in love on the dance floor where words do not exist and creating a story with movement is everything. Many say a picture is worth a thousand words, and that may be true, but dance describes feelings that words simply cannot. It is a pretty incredible moment to witness.
Ballroom brings joy to any walk of life. It brought development and understanding to me as a dancer, but I could never imagine what it would bring to me as an instructor. Watching a child find dedication, passion, and hard work or watching a mother find peace in the midst of a hectic day with a moment to herself is powerful and therapeutic.
Single Men
Anther one of my favorite moments to watch is a man finding confidence – a new confidence that is sophisticated yet humble, sexy but subtle. Most importantly it is watching a gentleman’s biggest fears dissipate. Using that confidence to give a lady exactly what she wants and witnessing the joy it brings them both is completely enamoring. The following is a testimonial about dance from one of my male students…
“Dancing is something I always wanted to be able to do. I always hated going out socially and being the person who wanted to get on the dance floor but always allowed fear to take over my body and mind every single time. I wanted to dance. I never thought I’d be able to. I always felt defeated, embarrassed, and afraid every time I attempted to dance. If you have seen the movie Hitch, my best move was the cue tip. I was terrified my size fourteen flippers most people call feet would step all over the person I was dancing with. It was the moment my mom dragged me into taking one ballroom class that forever changed my life and my mindset. Being brutally honest, I went into that class with a terrible attitude, but I left thinking to myself I just might be able to do this. If you can walk, you truly can dance in the ballroom world. I even questioned it because my biggest goal I had with dancing was being able to do it socially at weddings, bars, and other events. I quickly found out you can dance ballroom, Latin, and Swing dancing to virtually any genre of music. Finding ballroom dancing has fulfilled that empty void I had in my soul for the longest time, and it has
brought me more confidence in the two years I’ve been dancing than I have had in my entire life.” – Devan McClish
Couples
For the lovebirds who have been married for more years than I have been on this earth, marriage is beautiful, but marriage tends to get repetitive and sometimes the spark just is not there anymore. When coming to your first dance lesson, the spark reignites. The touch, the closeness of being in your loved one’s arms and movement to the music until you get lost. Then, all of a sudden the song is over, and the world comes back. For a moment it felt like nothing existed except each other and the intertwining of souls. Right then is when the spark comes back. It takes teamwork and effort to create something so beautiful together. You eventually end up craving dancing together. Some say it is marriage counseling; I say it is nothing short of being magical.
Weight Loss, Living Life, & Flexibility
Ballroom dancing is a way to escape life, whether for 45 minutes or an entire day. It is a great way to commemorate a loved one, someone you have held close to your heart, or yourself and everything you have experienced in life. Life is challenging. It is filled with potholes, flat tires, and obstacles at every twist and turn; dancing, however, allows you to forget everything going on in your life. During one 45-minute private lesson, you are focused on yourself, not your past life or future life. You are in the present moment living your best life.
Ballroom is a fantastic way to improve your mind and body. The gym is not meant for everybody. Ballroom is an incredible way to lose weight, gain control, balance and coordination. Lifting weights and spending hours in the gym doing the same monotonous bicep curl may not be for you. Not everyone enjoys running five miles, and to some, running 15 minutes seems like an eternity. Dancing a cha cha or a fast east coast swing will quickly work up a sweat and you don’t even realize you are exercising. Ballroom will improve your flexibility, strength, posture and resolve. And it will change the “I can’t” mentality to “I’m going to.”
Over the years of teaching ballroom, I’ve had students with various goals and needs. One driving factor is the bucket list. Sometimes people go their whole life wanting to learn how to dance and never do. Whether you are 18 or 81, it is never too late to dance. I have had students of all ages, shapes, and sizes walk through the door. I guarantee if you ask every single one of the students, none will say they regret coming to ballroom dancing, but all of them will say they wish they had started sooner. Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.
I started bringing dance in April of 2018 to the town that was close enough for me to drive that had no ballroom. It started in Bowling Green, and now I have expanded to Franklin, Murfreesboro and Clarksville, Tennessee. It is my pride and joy to bring dance to this world. My biggest advice out of the countless hours of my personal practice and thousands upon thousands of lessons I have taught would be that everyone needs to try dancing at least once. It is the world’s eighth wonder.
To contact me or visit one of the Ballroom Dance Studios locations, holds class, email ballroomdancestudios@gmail.com or call at 615-961-6848
– by Brooke Mortimer
