I went to dance class at ODC Dance Studio for the first time today in months.

I really couldn't keep up with the steps in the Fusion Rhythms class at all. Surrounding me were mostly older women and older men at various levels of fitness. Most of them were pretty much in the groove of all the dance steps. Lots of jumps, twists, turns, stepping on time and in specific ways, shaking parts of the body in specific choreography. While I can rock out and dance to my own rhythm, learning moves takes me a long time. I am not really visual .. more audio and kinesthetic. So I usually learn by making many, many mistakes and then "feeling" my way into the right move.

When they lifted right leg I usually lifted left. When the arms went up mine went down. Sure, I haven't been there in a long, time, but sheesh I really couldn't keep up! Meanwhile I had this voice in my head saying, "um... aren't you supposed to be a dance teacher?"

Meanwhile, grannies on my left and right were rockin out to Usher's "Yea" with squats and leaps while I fumbled, shaking their fists in the air with attitude. Several times the teacher looked back at me in the mirror and tried to correct my movements, but to no avail. Every now and then, she would say "smile! this is about having fun". I geuss I was frowning or something because every time she said it, she looked directly at me. It made me concentrate even more.

I knew the moment it was happening since things went into slow motion. We had formed a large inward facing dance circle and were doing the same moves. My left foot caught behind my right ankle and this wonderful airborne sensation happened ... then the loud "thud" as I landed right on my butt to a chorus of loudly drawn inhales. It seemed like the whole dance floor shook. "Are you okay?" the teacher asked as everyone kept moving. "Yea, no problem," I said confidently as I leapt to my feet and quickly scanned the room. Of course everyone was looking at me, but I just jumped back into the mix and tried to smile and stick with the steps. "It's just the floor," the teacher said, "they just re-did it." "No," I said. "It's me."

For some reason my eyes welled with tears so I just kept breathing and trying to stick with the moves and somehow made it through the end of class.

WOW. Talk about humbling! It has been a L-O-N-G time since I have felt so insecure and uncoordinated! It was actually a fantastic reminder of what hooping class must feel like for the absolute beginner who really just can't get it, and even worse, completely wipes out! It is so easy to take for granted that students in class even feel comfortable being there ... when in reality perhaps someone who just can't get it may be counting the minutes until they can escape.

I also realized that I often pinpoint a student who needs help and repeatedly address them in class... but perhaps that actually may not feel good to that student! Sometimes I have taken for granted that personal attention is always helpful. Also, commanding someone who is frowning in frustration to be "happy" could shake them out of their funk ... or it could push them to sink into it further. Good to remember .... perhaps encouraging something more like stretching the mouth, or sticking out their tongues (instead of saying "smile!") or breathing deeply could help provide ways to help happiness spontaneosly happen instead of just commanding people to be there.

Anyways, I am sort of chuckling thinking about how all this went down, now. As always, life presents so many opportunities for learning.