It must be good exercise 'cause I hurt all over

[darkemeralds]

I went to Zumba last night with Leslie.



I was pleased to be able to keep up aerobically with no problem, and though it was a good sweaty workout I didn't feel completely drained by it. All my muscles are sore today except the bike ones--even my hands, and I barely remember using them, but you do.

There were only six people in the class, and it took place next door to the gym in a salsa club: black walls, huge sunken dance floor, black-draped tables all around the edge, and a glittering bar. Great sound system. The teacher, Michele, looked like a movie star in her official Zumba gear and a sparkly headband.

So here's me, literally wrong-footed most of the time, unable to figure out how to do that thing with my arms, staring at Michele's feet, thinking, thinking, thinking about one-two-three-four, one-two-three-four, telling myself that even if my moves are all wrong, it's still great exercise as long as I keep moving, and yet keenly aware of myself as an uptight, locked-up, clumsy, unrelaxed middle-aged white woman with no hip movement whatsoever...


...and of course the more I thought these thoughts, the more they became true and probably the stupider I looked.

I wonder if it's possible to change that, even a little: to find some remnant of the natural dancer that got tsked out of me early on. Not having the body to be a Serious Dancer should never be the cause of a person not dancing.

I'm going again tomorrow after work.

Comments

[executrix]

There are jolly few complicated activities that can be picked up by a newbie in *one* session. Also, cross-training is designed to identify muscles that you haven't developed yet...so they can hurt.

Zumba is based on Latin dance, and at Latin clubs many of the largest ladies are most admired both as dancers and as hotties.

[sporky_rat]

Oh yeah. There's a Latin dancing club and all of us skinnies are so not doing as well as the larger ladies.

I keep remembering this line from Oscar Wilde Does Jersey Shore: "That girl can shake it. Drop it like it's hot, girl."
Just in, well, very plummy British accents.
Since we can't insert in comments (or can we?)

[executrix]

Tara's grandma in "Strictly Ballroom." Now THERE's a dancer.

[darkemeralds]

OMG that wins!

[darkemeralds]

I'm less concerned about quick uptake than I am about ever-uptake. I don't know if it's possible to bridge the stiffness gap--the "people like me don't move like that" barrier.

[ravurian]

I think you have to try it a few more time before you bring 'ever' into it, lol.

[darkemeralds]

You and your dancing feet. :P

This is attempt number [X times several] over the years which the Major Tom in my brain has made to contact Ground Control. Not all of the attempts have involved music or dance, but I've been balloon-head for most of my life, and the string down to the physical realm is pretty tenuous.

Overcoming the straitjacketing physical shame is the hardest thing about going and practicing and re-trying. I'm getting there.

[lamentables]

\o/

[darkemeralds]

I went! I moved!

I'm exhausted today. :D

[karen_jk]

I was just at Zumba this morning, for the first time in several weeks. I so miss it! I struggled with a few things but improved steadily over the hour.

The more you do it the better you will get at it. Slowly the steps will become doable and then fun. :)

[darkemeralds]

Thank you for the encouragement. I know I can learn the steps eventually, but I really am very, very slow to understand anything directional.

Meanwhile, I move as much as I can along with the class, and it seems to be a fantastic workout.

[kis]

Good for you! Sounds great!

[darkemeralds]

It's really quite a bit of fun.

[tehomet]

You went! Marvellous! What kind of music did they play? (The music makes a huge difference to enjoyment for me.) And you had no trouble keeping up, which is awesome and more than I could say for myself. :) I'm sure that the whole rhythm and unselfconsciousness thing will come with time for both of us, we've got to just keep going to the classes, as, obviously, you're already planning to do. \o/

I wonder if it's possible to change that, even a little: to find some remnant of the natural dancer that got tsked out of me early on.

Reminds me of the dance teacher at my last class. He was saying things like, 'Now, in your own style, do...' and I was privately thinking, 'But I haven't got my own style! I'm just concentrating on trying not to fall over!' :D

Not having the body to be a Serious Dancer should never be the cause of a person not dancing.

I think that folks like Annie Hanauer, professional dancer, and Ragen Chastain, (here doing a competitive two-step routine with a partner), professional dancer, choreographer, and three-time winner of the USA National Dance Championship, would say that everyone who has a body has the body to be a Serious Dancer, if they want to. But I take your point, and I agree that only genuinely not wanting to, as opposed to being too embarrassed to get up and move, should be the only reason not to dance.

[darkemeralds]

We have salsa, of course, and some other Latin American styles--samba, I think, and mambo (is that South American?). And we had hip-hop, and Bollywood, and kind of a mainstream American ballady thing to cool down with. All of it was fun and enjoyable.

"My own style" would be to go sit in a corner with a book or something, so yeah, that instruction would have been lost on me, too.

I probably misspoke in saying "not having the body." Clearly, several people reading have assumed I meant something about the size or shape of my body, both of which I'm actually okay with. It's the stiffiness--the psychological rigidity, the lack of actually living in my body much below the neck--that I'm thinking about.

You see people (Ragan Chastain is a very good example--thank you for the link!) through whom waves of movement seem to flow unimpeded. They are unlocked. I would like to attain that.

[ranunculus]

Our square dance teacher last night said that it takes an adult dancer approximately 39 repetitions to actually learn a dance move. He was referring to knowing where to go when something is called. No one expects a beginner to be able to much beside be bewildered.

Having belonged to several dance classes over the years I can say that the attitude of most dancers is YAY, a new person!!! From my perspective I really enjoy seeing someone improve. I know lots of people, Donald included, who start out horribly clumsy and get way better. Donald took up the flying trapeze at about age 50. He had NO upper body strength, and now, something like four years later he is WAY stronger and his coordination has improved no end.

Just go to class and have fun!

[darkemeralds]

Oh, you're just so wonderful and inspiring! Thank you for the perspective.

I seem to have given the impression here that I expected to turn instantly into a dancer, or to be "natually good" at this type of movement, and I really didn't. I'm just confronting a lifetime of repressed physical self-expression. I accept that it will take a while, and your thoughtful comment gives me hope!

Donald does flying trapeze? Flying trapeze???. That is so...amazing!

[vampirefan]

omg yay!!!

really, since the only person that your zumba affects is you, just let go girl!

my mom cracked me up when she told me how things went when she first started taking aerobics or any of the teacher led classes.... she said she would step the opposite way pretty much all the time. always seemed to be a step behind - but! that she didn't care! she was just going to flail away until she got it 'cause whether she did it right or wrong, she was still exercising and, well, that's the whole point, right?

she says she still flails about whenever the teachers change things up and she has noticed that the other regulars always tend to give her a little more space around her than usual... lol!

so, as nike says: just do it!

[darkemeralds]

Hee!

I almost bumped into someone last night, turning too wide. I can see where a crowded class would be a problem. I'm going to go again tomorrow if I can break away from work on time. Same teacher, same set of songs, so I have a chance of beginning to remember some of it.

There was one step out of all of them that made perfect sense to me and I got it right away, so maybe there's hope!

[pinesandmaples]

I wonder if it's possible to change that, even a little: to find some remnant of the natural dancer that got tsked out of me early on. Not having the body to be a Serious Dancer should never be the cause of a person not dancing.

Little brown wife says yes. Little brown wife can also move her hips independently from her shoulders so I don't know how far her opinion can be trusted. Little brown wife likes Zumba and firmly believes that anyone can train their muscles to follow along. I refuse to do Zumba so I've got no opinion or experience on the matter.

[darkemeralds]

Once my own self-consciousness dissipated a bit, I was relieved to notice that hip-swiveling and the independent movement of hips and shoulders seems to be distributed equally among big and small, brown and less-brown, young and old in my Zumba classes--in short, that my unfamiliarity with these things isn't solely the result of my being a middle-aged white woman.

And I've also noticed that proper shoulder retraction suddenly frees up a whole lot of torso movement.

You are Awesome!

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Hon, it's Owzers. Since I'm home sick, and it's impossible to sleep whilst drowning in snot, I thought I'd catch up on what you've been doing lately. Holy crap dude! I have so many similar issues with structured movement. I've never been able to do the splits, even as a kid. My body is so rigid, like I'm braced all the time. I tried a golf lesson once, and dropped it because I couldn't get my upper body to rotate. Took a semester of ballet in college - and I was the worst student in the class. Seriously, when I finally managed to flail my way across the floor in a series of jumping leaps, everyone in the class broke into applause, which was really embarrassing. I suspect it has to do with the "balloon head" you mentioned. I am very rarely in my body, which is why I'm so klutzy, and uncoordinated. The only time I've experienced fluid movement was after dropping acid and being hospitalized when I was 35. I was venting so much rage and repressed grief, that my body finally unlocked. I wish it would have stayed that way. I will be tapping on these issues. So proud of you!

Re: You are Awesome!

[darkemeralds]

Repressed anger is a terrific lock on the body, there's no doubt about it. Expressed anger does other things, but all in all I'd like to be genuinely less angry, and the only way I know how to do that is to fill all the non-angry parts with more and more joy.

Then I think a kind of chemistry happens where the anger dissolves. I don't know if grace follows--it seems unlikely at my age that actual grace could ever reappear, but I think some improvements are possible, and I want them.