My daughter has been taking tap lessons for about 3 years now and absolutely loves it! She taps in the grocery store, she taps while brushing her teeth, while walking to school! If there is an open space, it becomes her tap stage! I watch her in class and see the joy that comes over her when she masters a skill or combination and it brings me back to my youth when I used to take ballet, tap, jazz, and musical theatre for many years. Now, I drive her to dance and watch her dance. Like many of my peers, I have become a Dance Mom!
Last fall, I learned that they were teaching an adult dance class at the same studio where my daughter takes lessons. The students in this class were not surprisingly, dance moms of daughters or sons who were students at the studio. While I was interested last year, I talked myself out of it with many excuses, “I will never remember the steps…Others are better than me….I don’t have time in my schedule…” The class was so popular last year that they continued to offer it again this year. My daughter asked me over and over again if I would sign up for the class. Again, I doubted myself, but I thought, “Why not?…What do I have to lose?…How different can this be from the tap classes that I used to take?…Surely, they will go easy on us because we are dance moms…It does say on the class description that no experience is necessary’”.
I walked in on my first day of class, taught by my daughter’s very same tap teacher, and immediately thought, “This is not your mama’s tap class”. Tap today is not the shuffle, ball change that I grew up doing. Buffalo, Paradiddle, Maxie Ford, Toe Stand…these are some of the movements that we are learning. And yes, we did a toe stand on our very first day of class! Ms. Sierra was not going easy on us just because we are dance moms!
Every week, I learn something new and use my brain in ways that I don’t typically. It takes me much longer than it used to in order to learn a new step or combination, but I love it! I try hard, but I don’t take myself too seriously and luckily neither do my fellow classmates. Some have danced before and others have not, but we love the accomplishment that we feel when we nail that combination. I am still waiting for that day ? But until then, we are getting a great workout for our bodies and our minds and having a lot of fun!
