Growing up, you lose a very familiar childhood lifestyle.
My school weeks had so much structure to them. I’d wake at the same time every day, eat, work, play, study and keep up with my hobbies. Having an Irish mammy to make you go to all of these things certainly helped. For me, a highlight of my childhood and teens was my dance classes. I had two a week and they kept me fit, nimble and flexible.
Nothing gets the stress of exams off your mind like a good sweat.
Adult life should be no different, but… it’s not that easy.
I don’t have the Mammy-fund paying for my hobbies or to push me to go when I’m feeling lazy. With the wave of college and going out on the sesh regularly, I kind of forgot about dancing altogether.
Until last week…
I attended my first dance class in six years!
I decided to try a Street Jazz class with Conor Davis.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxzPc52FfsW/
I won’t lie, I was pretty nervous. I thought I’d be super rusty and faint with exhaustion. I strolled up to the Lab, a place I had never even heard of prior, and met my friend outside who had recommended the class. We headed upstairs, paid €12 and signed in, even from that moment I felt a little more at ease as the dance teacher gave me a big smile and had a chat with me.
There was no nonsense, we were straight in with warm-up exercises. The studio was big, bright and had a mirror wall so that you could look at your sweaty face as you moved.
Once the warm-up was finished we went head first into a dance. I could feel the wheels in my old dancer brain start to move again. I have to say, without that I think I may have struggled a little, you move through steps quickly and because it’s street jazz the movements, in general, are pretty speedy.
It’s definitely an intermediate class rather than beginners, I definitely felt like I was a lot rustier and a bit behind everyone else.
https://www.instagram.com/p/ByCzfrbFPg3/
As the class went on, I felt myself getting more an more comfortable with the moves, another few classes and I feel I could get on the same page as most of the dancers.
Everyone, including the other dancers, was really sound, non-judgemental and very much in their own world so I didn’t feel like anyone was looking at me while I was dancing.
Conor was a brilliant teacher, taking us through the moves as much as we needed him to before (kind of) perfecting them.
Best of all, it’s a great workout and you can throw some sexy and some sass into the dances – we all need a bit of that in our lives.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs79UVElsJb/
It really doesn’t matter if you’re not the best dancer in this class, it’s all about movement and having fun, which I really did.
I left the class feeling completely elated and buzzing for my next class.
I’ll definitely be back!
