My Life in Sweats: The First Week.

I am excited. I’ve been excruciatingly excited since November. When I found out about the classes offered at two dance studios in Plano, not only did I crawl all over their websites, I typed the names of all of the instructors into youtube and watched videos for hours. Hours! On the Wednesday following my inaugural dance battle (as a spectator) in downtown Plano I had a meeting that would put me only seven minutes away from the studios. I decided that I should check them out and make sure I knew where they were since I was planning to take my first classes on Thursday.

I went to DFC Headquarters first and there was only one person there who was just opening the doors. He was a young guy who took one look at me and thought I was lost. I had him write down all of the relevant instructors’ class days and times and after he did all that he looked at me and said, “You could have just taken a picture of our schedule on the board.” Thanks, little snarky dude. I didn’t get a good look at the studios but it was an interlocking maze of room after room and the whole place definitely has an urban vibe. The lobby is comfortable and modern. I like that.

Next I drove to Fenton’s Dance Factory and the difference was night and day. I walked in on a hotbed of activity because Fenton’s also caters to kids. Several dance studios were filled with thumping music and hard working kids of all ages. The lobby was filled with… people my age waiting for their kids to get out of class. Sigh. I also had a very different experience at the front desk. Kristin, who is one of the people who holds the place down, managed my barrage of bubbly words, arm flailing, and toe bouncing like a pro. I was met with a smile and she mirrored my enthusiasm back to me. I had questions about several classes and told her I was looking for technique based classes so she recommended some for me. She asked if I wanted to jump into the “animation” class that would be starting in the next 45 minutes. This confused me as I only know of one kind of animation and it doesn’t have much to do with dancing. It turns out that animation is a series of isolated robotic moves but it isn’t limited to the dance you may know as “the robot.” Sure! I’m game! I’ll save my experience in this class for another blog post though.

My first week was comprised of four classes: Animation, Krump, Popping, and Advanced Hip Hop. Yeah. Advanced. I made the mistake of telling Kristin that I’d been doing belly dance for ten years off and on and she insisted that I’d be just fine. I protested but she said I’d love the instructor and that he taught a lot of technique. That was/is ONE intimidating class but in the end she was right. I struggled in all of these classes but that’s what I wanted and expected. I got a taste and now I want MORE. It’s practically all I can think about – hence this blog series.

I’m going to wrap up this post with video examples of each of the dance styles I’m learning. Enjoy!

This is animation:

This is krump:

This is popping (It’s a longer dance battle but all amazing.):

And hip hop. You guys all know hip hop right? JESUS these people move fast…

Did you burn calories just watching? I did.

Love,

~S

Hey you know what you should do? You should subscribe. Then when I post about all the crazy stuff that’s happening you’ll get an email. You… want an email… don’t you?