Do you wanna dance?

Recently, I started taking a community ed class in modern dance and storytelling at Roosevelt High School. The young instructor, whose name was Nate, was a recent graduate of Macalester University. He has performed with Xenon dance troupe and has a background in modern and improv dance, as well as hip hop and Latin. In the first class, he mentioned that he had spent his junior year of college in Costa Rica where he received instruction in Latin-style dances. Our class consisted of around twelve people of all ages

and backgrounds, everything from seniors like myself to those in their twenties and thirties. Nate began the class by asking students what kinds of dancing they had done. While some had no previous experience, a few had even danced professionally. Most of us were somewhere in between.

After the introductions were over, Nate asked us to walk around the room, while focusing our attention on the way we moved our bodies to convey an attitude or to express feelings like anger. He added that we can tell our stories non-verbally through improvisational dance. He had us close our eyes, and isolate certain movements in various parts of our bodies like our heads, shoulders, arms, legs, and backs. After leading us in a brief choreographed routine, he divided the class into groups of three. He asked each group to team up in order to come up with a simple series of choreographed moves. Then we performed our routines in front of the entire class. That was a bit nerve-wracking for me, but our group did well and we got positive feedback from the others.

Even though I haven't had had any formal training, I've done quite a bit of dancing in my life. When I was in my twenties, I used to go to discotheques where I danced to rock'n'roll music. I liked the fact that you didn't have to know the steps or have a partner in order to shake your booties on the floor. I always felt intimidated by ball room dances like the polka, waltz, or Jitterbug because I couldn't get my feet to do the right steps. About thirty years ago, I attended a dance venue in South Minneapolis called Tapestry where they featured and taught folk dances like contra, square, and Latin. I always enjoyed square dancing because you didn't have to bring a partner, you got a chance to dance with everyone on the floor, and the caller usually taught people the basic steps before the music started. Plus I loved the live music they played.

I've taken several community ed dance classes. One was swing. Another one which resembles Irish step dancing and tap dancing was called clogging. This dance, which is popular in Appalachian states like Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, resembles Irish step and tap dancing. The dancers do some intricate steps while often wearing tap shoes. Sometimes they amplify the sound by dancing on a wooden plank. Even though I was never able to master the clogging steps, I enjoyed listening to the fiddle and banjo tunes that accompanied this dance form. I remember that my teacher performed with a high energy group music called The Wild Goose Chase Cloggers.

The thing I like most about my dance class is having the freedom to move my body in whatever way I want. I appreciate the fact that our teacher emphasizes the improvisational aspect of dance. He doesn't make us adhere to a set of prescribed dance moves and choreography. We are free to express our selves in whatever way the spirit moves.