“…5, 6, 7, 8”

Life Lesson Learned: Don’t wait to do something you love! 

I’ve never been much of an athlete. That’s not to say I hadn’t given sports a try as a kid…but I quickly learned that to succeed in basketball you need to be able to dribble more than a foot and actually serve the ball over the net in volleyball. Imagine that! 

I fared a bit better at middle school cheerleading (lack of flexibility and tumbling skills aside), but my skills (and overall passion) seemed to be better suited for dance. 

Like many other girls I’m sure, I started taking dance classes in my preschool years. I remember very little about that initial experience, so I’m grateful my mom took photos for me to look back on.

I didn’t stay at that particular studio very long (which was two towns over), but evidently I enjoyed dance as my mom signed me up for classes right in town. 

They were offered by the Rabbit Run Community Arts association (the organization also behind the theater season at Rabbit Run Theater), with lessons being taught in Madison’s former village hall. At the time the dance studio was nothing more than a giant room with ballet bars on the side. Any seating required folding chairs placed around the perimeter of the room. Not the most fancy of locations, but it was certainly cozy!

When I was 8, I entered the dance world again and took classes with another local teacher, who taught both at the village location and at her own house. With the exception of my third grade year, we were taught jazz, tap and ballet. Generally the first half of the year was a focus on technique, while the second was primarily on learning and perfecting our routines for the annual recital. 

I decided to quit dance–despite my love of it–in sixth grade to try basketball instead. That later transitioned to the aforementioned cheerleading, volleyball and later theater. 

You can take the dancer out of dance, but you can’t take the dance out of a dancer…so in my junior year of college (when I had more time for fun classes) I decided to sign up for jazz dance class. I had debated between that and tap, but those classes were at a less convenient time (and quite frankly, I didn’t want to shell out for the pricier tap shoes). The class was an absolute blast, I learned quite a bit (I think far more than I did as a kid), so I did one more semester my senior year. 

Years after moving to NJ I could tell I was getting bit by the dance bug yet again. I stumbled across a tap performance at the Hudson River Park and it took every ounce of control not to start tapping my own sneaker-cladded feet along with them. It was on my “bucket list” to take adult tap classes, but I wasn’t interested in a full-length session due to the price and time commitment, so the idea eventually slipped from my mind.

But in early 2020 after a bit of research, I discovered that a company called Broadway Dance Center offered a pay-per-class option. Huzzah! I could show up for a class when my schedule allowed or if I didn’t have any other plans that day.

I remember being a bit nervous when my first class came around, but I was equally eager too. (Yet evidently distracted as I don’t believe I took a single photo of the place. So please enjoy these online photos)

 The building was a short walk from the Port Authority Bus Station, which was convenient, and there was just such an energy there. The studios were all bustling with various classes that were tempting to observe (I later discovered that in one of their waiting areas they had TV screens where you could do just that via live cameras), and you could tell most people were eager to be there. When I found the particular studio I needed, I quickly became overwhelmed not only by the sheer number of people who were there to attend the class, but the fact that so many of them seemed to know each other. It was like being the new kid at school, even as a “drop in” class! 

To make things even more awkward, the instructor also made mention of the fact that there were some “new faces” and that we should do our best to follow along. How hard could that be? Right?

Hard. If you’ve ever seen the television show Friends, there’s an episode in which the three female lead characters, Monica, Rachel and Phoebe, take a tap dance class in NYC. Though none of them have any kind of dancing experience, they all prove to have different skill levels: Monica struggles to keep up, Rachel surprises everyone with her talent and Phoebe knows she can’t do it and hilariously dances around in typical Phoebe fashion. At the beginning of the class, I was Monica. By the end….I was on the cusp of turning into Phoebe. 

This was likely because I had foolishly signed up for an intermediate level class, which called for 2-5 years of experience. Sure, I had the recommended 2 years of experience as a kid, but evidently just knowing what a “shuffle” is isn’t enough to be able to bump yourself up a level. 

To make matters worse, not only was I unfamiliar with many of the steps we were required to do, I was quite rusty at tap. In my experience, tap requires an extra level of thinking compared to other styles of dance simply because your feet have to be doing so much in such a short amount of time. Then I was expected to remember the choreography/combinations? Forget about it. My brain was not at all prepared for that, and this is coming from the woman who remembers her tap dance from fourth grade. 

I was able to laugh about it after class (once I recovered from the “trauma” of feeling like a deer in the headlights), and knew I’d be taking beginner level lessons after that. No shame in returning back to the basics!

Turns out, even the beginner level was anything but beginner. While it was easier for me personally, I was still introduced to a number of steps that were brand new to me. (It really makes me wonder if I hadn’t learned them as a kid because we were so young or my former dance teacher just never went nearly enough in depth). I at least felt like I could handle the class….and enjoyed it much better as a result! I do wonder though how anyone with zero dance experience was expected to keep up? That’s probably why the dance center had a number of reviews with complete novices complaining about the misleading levels of the classes. Yikes! 

Just as I was getting back into the swing of things, my return to the dance world came to a screeching halt with the arrival of the pandemic. My tap shoes, which had been worn no more than 4 times, were put back into my closet for what could very well have been an indefinite amount of time. Don’t wait to try a new hobby or return to something you love; you may regret it! 

While I only have a few memories from my time at the BDC, I do have at least one fun keepsake to show off that I took dance classes at an actual NYC studio. 

Life Lesson Learned: Sometimes, you gotta give yourself some “homework”

I knew when I moved back to Ohio that I was going to sign up for tap classes yet again (though I opted to wait a year to allow myself to get settled in first), especially because my previous adult tap experience was sadly cut so short. Around here, you’re in it for the long haul paying for an entire session. This has its perks though, because it gives you more time to perfect your skills!

This time, I knew not to make the same mistake of ending up in a more advanced class. After a two-year hiatus I was going to be rusty yet again, not to mention ridiculously out of shape this time around. Sigh. Plus, I was certain I had barely tapped into (pun intended), the foundations of tap dance that would be crucial for advancing forward. Again, back to the beginning!

My class is held at the Rabbit Run Community Arts building in the village, so, ironically, I’m returning back to my roots. Honestly the building and studio don’t look the least bit different with the exception of a small waiting area added to the room. Every time I walk in there, I can almost picture Little Shay hopping around with her leotard and ballet shoes, or doing practice shuffles in the middle of the floor. 

Evidently as you grow older, your class size grows smaller (NYC classes aside) because there’s more space in the studio than we know what to do with! (Meanwhile, at the BDC, you were lucky if you weren’t accidentally tapping on someone else’s toes). It’s a lot more relaxing though, which I do appreciate. 

We’ve covered a lot of the basics, but also move quite quickly. I think I’ve surprised myself with how fast I’ve been able to pick things up this go-around. Well, most of the time…

Unfortunately for a day bird like me, the class is held at 7:30 at night. My brain nearly ceases to work after 6 pm, and by the time class rolls around I’m lucky if I can remember my own name. I have to work extra hard to stay focused (a great mental exercise for the brain no doubt!) so that I’m not tripping over my feet. Most days I’m at my best as long as I’ve had adequate sleep, but even so I’ll occasionally have a complete “brain fart” in the middle of a step and forget what in God’s name I’m supposed to be doing until it clicks again two seconds later. 

Those times where I’m still lost but we have to move on? I go home that night and annoy my cat and bunny for the next week by practicing the step in socks every 30 minutes. Best self-assigned “homework” ever! It actually makes me feel more confident by the next class and keeps me from having a mental meltdown as I’m trying to remember it with my “ready for bed” brain. 

We’ve already surpassed what I learned in 2020 in just a month’s worth of classes, and I’m excited for what’s ahead. 

Time to go practice my paradiddles!