Achieving Life Changing Goals – Hip Hop Dance7/30/2009
Part 2/3 of The Life Changing Goals Series. 100 hours of Dance!
I was always envious of the people who could effortlessly go out on the dance floor and groove the night away. Instead of trying to learn the various art forms of dance, I stayed on the sideline, and left the dancing to the professionals or the brave.
Secretly I wished I could dance well but my ego would get in the way.
My excuses would be something along the lines of, “I don’t dance” or “Dancing isn’t a manly thing to do”.
I was finally inspired to take lessons after watching a Hip-Hop class at my gym last December. It looked like so much fun so I said to myself,”Why Not?!”. I’m 25, still relatively fit and young enough to really use this skill.
Dance lessons can be rather expensive, but I was shocked to find out that they were free with my gym membership at 24 Hour Fitness. Woohoo! I took my very first lesson on a Thursday the very next week.
I was extraordinarly nervous the first time I took dance class.
Being the observer that I am, I noticed that I was the ONLY guy in the room full of flexible, fit girls. If that wasn’t bad enough, the freshly waxed glass window made the dance room visible to EVERYONE in the gym, and there were always onlookers.
I then thought to myself,”I wonder how many of those onlookers were in a position like myself a few days ago, wishing they had the skill but couldn’t muster up the courage to be in that room”. I forgot about how silly I looked and focused on the lesson at hand.
Somehow, I made it through that day without giving up. My body felt okay but my brain was completely numb from the experience. I was using body parts I never knew I had. While just about everyone else in the room knew the routine, my dancing looked like a demon possessed man getting tasered repeatedly.
It’s a fitting analogy because the routine we learned was based on this song “Disturbia” by Rhianna.
Rihanna- Disturbia Music Video [OFFICIAL]
Regardless of how it looked, I was in pure joy after it was done.
I made a commitment that day that I was going to complete 100 Hours of Dance.
I didn’t care how long it would take, but i was determined to make it happen. After my first experience, I started going to class about 3- 4 times a week. I really enjoyed the coordination it took to learn the routine. As an added benefit, I was able to stay in shape, and the stretching helped my muscles recover faster from the marathon training I was doing as well.
If I was to write an E-book on How to NOT look like a Spaz on the Dance Floor, I’d start by saying that it takes about 25 hours of practice before you start to see results. I remember about 1/4th of the way through my goal, I finally started getting one of the routines down.
Things were looking up after that day and I started to develop a little bit of rhythm in my dancing ability. People and friends around me started to notice as well.
Each day my courage and confidence increased in my abilities. I found myself YouTubing various types of choreography on a consistent basis, honing my skills to match some of the more popular routines.
I achieved my goal of 100 hours of dance this month, July 7th!
The experience was completely worth the effort and I continue to attend dance class on a regular basis. These days I’m taking more advanced classes that focus on popping, waving, tutting, and other advanced levels of hip hop.
I’ve learned so much yet so little. The various levels and forms of dance are staggering!
Dancing transcends all cultures and I plan on taking the skills I’ve learned to Europe on my travels. I’m excited to experiece and learn about the different dance cultures in the countries I’ll be visiting.
Until, then keep practicing. if you need a bit of inspiration, watch this guy below.
Oh ya, and this video just so happens to be the most watched video of ALLTIME!