I’ve been doing a zumba class twice a week at my gym for a few months now. Its great exercise and a lot of fun. Zumba consists of aerobics, latin and street dance so it’s a full on work out. I love the latin steps and that style of music, but I really enjoy the street/hip hop steps. While I manage the mambo and cha-cha-cha well, when it comes to the street steps, I’m quite stiff and I can’t really carry off the style. I decided that it would be fun to try a beginner street dance class to see if I could get a big more in tune with my inner ‘gangster’.
I had a look online and found a local dance school called Wiggles. They do a beginner street class for adults on a Monday night, and for £6 for an hour, it seemed reasonable.
I went along this Monday with an open mind about what to expect…although part of me couldn’t help but expect to walk into a room filled with people looking like they were extras in Fame! What I found instead, was a group of women of varying ages, all very chatty and very welcoming to new comers. I told Lauren, the instructor, that I’d never done a hip hop class but that I was an amateur pole dancer. Her response was ‘oh don’t worry, at least if you’ve done some dancing, you’ll have rhythm’ – I felt instantly at ease just based on the fact that she didn’t see my lack of street dance as any kind of concern.
We started with a warm up and stretch, and then Lauren went on to teach us the steps which made up a routine. I think my background with pole dancing helped me, as I seemed to pick up the steps quickly and walking them through was fine. When we put the music on, at first I was a bit all over the place, but eventually I started to get the hang of it and by the end of the class I was keeping up with the other girls.
It’s great to learn a new style of dance. I really enjoyed myself and think it will benefit me when it comes to the next competition and choreographing a routine.
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