H is for Health!

H is for Health

Stifling an urge to dance is bad for your health; it rusts your spirit and your hips! – Terri Guillemets

In my late 30’s I found myself unattached, nearly 50 pounds over weight (an issue I had battled all my life) and somewhat at my wits end as to what to do with my “spare” time.  Hmmm….is time ever really spare?  Anyway, along with a change in eating habits and some new rules about how often I was going to get to the gym a week, I decided that I would start dancing.  I had always done a bit of what I fondly refer to as ‘Cowboy crank ‘n yank’ (having grown up in Montana where it must be recognized as the State Dance!) but watching the dance floor at my local watering hole, it seemed that there was a whole lot more than crankin’ goin’ on….oh yeah….and there were some really different types of dancin’ happenin’ too! 

 So, like nearly everything that I get interested in, I jumped in with both cowgirl boots and a new pair of size “I ain’t tellin’ ya how big” Wranglers and started to learn to dance…the hard way….on the bar room floor (and you thought I was going to say ‘on the bar’)!  One thing lead to another and I followed line of dance right out of the bar, into group classes, private lessons, competitions, performances, teaching, and who knows where the journey will end.  It has been a fun and rewarding journey and I have met some great friends along the way, but the really amazing thing was how fast I lost those 50 pounds, and how I was having so much fun I didn’t even notice that the weight was disappearing until I had to buy smaller Wranglers!!  OK…dancing wasn’t the only exercise I was getting but since I was dancing 6 or 7 nights a week for about 3 hours at a time I was probably burning an additional 6000 calories a week….and having FUN, socializing and filling some of that “spare” time!

 So here are some statistics on dancing and our health….

• 1 hour of ballroom dancing burns about 300 calories depending on the dancer’s weight and the intensity of the dance.  Admittedly that is only about ½ the calories that can be burned running on a treadmill for and hour, but dancing is much more fun than socializing with a treadmill! 
• Dancing reduces stress, increases energy, improves strength, and increases all-over muscle tone and coordination (Mayo Clinic research).
• Dancing can lower risk of coronary heart disease, decrease blood pressure and strengthen bones (NHLBI research).
• This is a BIGGIE:  A 21-year study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that dancing can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia in the elderly!  The physical aspect of dancing increases blood flow to the brain, the social aspect leads to less stress, depression and loneliness and dancing requires memorizing steps and working with a partner…both of which provide mental challenges crucial for brain health and brain body coordination!

So…don’t let your hips rust!  DANCE!  And remember….you don’t quit dancing because you get old….you get old because you quit dancing!

 Dance of the Day:  Hustle

Hustle is probably the most famous of the disco dances which were made popular in the 1970’s.  Although both line dance and partner dance forms of the dance exist (and both were danced in the movie Saturday Night Fever), it is the partner form of that dance that really interests me.  The Hustle has many similarities to swing, it’s timing is essentially double time jitterbug and it is either danced rotationally like jitterbug or 4-count swing, or linearly like West Coast Swing.  Additionally, it is often quite quick in tempo like a 4-count swing.  Most, if not all jitterbug or 4-count swing patterns can be danced in Hustle with little or no adjustment for the different timing of each dance.  Speaking of timing…since partner Hustle has a 3 beat basic (counted ‘&1, 2, 3) it can be danced to waltz music!

D is for Dancing...or is that Dating?

D is for Dancing or is that Dating?  The Perfect 3-Minute Relationship!

Have you heard that dance is the vertical representation of horizontal passion.  I certainly hope that isn’t always true ‘cause I have danced more than a few dances that were much closer to a horror story than a steamy romance novel!  But than, what dancer hasn’t?

But if dance is a date than consider it a 3-minute relationship – and what’s not to love about the dancing relationship?  It’s acceptable, actually expected to dance in public, even if you are not married to the person you are dancing.  Either a man or woman can ask for a dance.  Many, sometimes hundreds of people group dance in the same room.  Swapping partners is expected, often required.  Politeness is usually the norm on a dance.  The dance can be fast-paced/exciting, relaxed/casual, or sultry/sensual, depending on the mood.  Eyes meet, bodies touch and move together to the music, each striving to make the experience better for their partner than for themselves.  When the dance is good, it is very, very good…breathe deep and smoke the imaginary cigarette good.  When it is not so good, well it still isn’t so bad that I wouldn’t accept another dance….it is just that I am very thankful that all I am committing to is about 3 minutes…not the rest of my life!

Dance of the Day:  Disco                                           

While which song started the disco phenomena, it is generally agreed that that it was sung in about 1972 and that it, like all Disco music, had funk, soul and Latin influences.  Disco’s driving, all accented (every beat is equally as strong as the next and all of them are very strong) structure originally attracted club-goers in New York and Philadelphia who were interested in a bit of rebellion against the mainstream rock music of the time.  This counterculture danced “freestyle” dances such as the “Bump”, “Penguin” (and I thought that movement was reserved for a badly executed chaine turn!), “Boogaloo”, “Watergate”, the “Robot”, and of course….the “Hustle”.  In 1973, “touch” dancing found it’s way into the Disco scene and oh my, oh MY!  the partnered version of the Hustle (which is really just a syncopated 4-count swing) became the rage by 1977…thank you Saturday Night Fever!   By the way, even though Disco is danced to 4/4 music, Hustle is my favorite dance to do to an intermediate tempo waltz!  Yup…think about it….Hustle is usually counted “& 1 2 3”, a waltz basic is counted “1 2 3”....try it sometime!