New Year, new opportunities to . . .
I took ten days off work for the first time in over two years. That gave me an opportunity to look forward and think about what I want to happen in the future, both for me and for my teaching. As I caught up with all of our older family members, I started to focus on WAY in the future, not just 2021. How do I want to live now, and how does that impact ten/twenty/thirty years from now?
Although it’s not a surprise to those of you who have studied with me, I am re-committed to incorporating elements of healthy living into my tango classes each week. I want to come out of this pandemic with more skills, a better life-work balance, and with a body that will allow me to dance! Here’s what to expect:
Tune into our bodies
I have been doing daily yoga since August with my husband (I am personally lazy, but he’s not). Since I tore my ankle ligament, I have not been able to go running, and yoga has given me daily time to tune into my body and be present the way I used to do when running. I recently started yoga teacher training to expand my toolkit of stretching and balance ideas for tango, and have realized that I am more of a movement geek than I thought: I am having SO MUCH fun thinking about which muscle does what as I learn new movements, and then applying that to my tango moves. It’s my third time through anatomy classes, but the first time in ten years; a good review!
So don’t say I have not warned you that tango classes will have enhanced body awareness components!
Relieve stress
Celebrating holidays without our loved ones, has not been easy. For the few who made the huge commitment to quarantine for two weeks in order to be with family (Stephanie!), you know how important those family ties are to you. For those of us too far away to visit, Zoom did help connect us, but it’s not the same.
Holidays are always stressful. On top of that, having COVID around is more stressful. Add to that (in the USA) that we are having a rocky political transition, and many people are stressed out about that, too.
Dancing can relieve stress for many of us. Exercise can relieve stress. Breathing can relieve stress. When we don’t know how long we have to continue this marathon of pandemic alterations, we NEED those stress releases! So don’t say I didn’t warn you that tango classes will focus on taking you out of those moments of stress as much as I can!
Express ourselves
My extroverted students have told me that this isolation is really killing them. It’s not quite as hard for us introverts, but few of us have our normal ways to express ourselves available to us. That’s especially true for tango dancers: going out dancing and moving to music with a multitude of other dancers—that is not going to happen safely for a while. What else can we do to express ourselves?
My solution to this has been to incorporate “just dance” moments into class. Being able to see other humans expressing themselves at the same time, to the same music, allows us little windows into the future, where we will be able to dance in the same room, together. And there may be disco cooldowns :-)
Get stronger
2021 gives us a chance to set goals for ourselves. I am not a New Year’s resolution kind of person, but I want to be strong for as many years as possible, so I am focusing on finding ways to strengthen my body that will be accessible to me as I keep aging. Tango and yoga are both on that list.
I feel that most of us who dance cannot envision a time where we cannot move to music do all the other activities that we love. So . . . You can’t say that I didn’t warn you that dance class will work on building your body and your strength to keep you going this year, and for many years.
Find balance
As we age, balance tends to decline. I don’t want to lose the ability to do the things that I do, so I have really dialed down during the pandemic, working on my balance. Again, I want to live my entire life doing what I love, and not ending up sitting in a chair, unable to move easily. OK, so I love to knit and spin, and I have activities I could do sitting down, BUT I want to be able to dance, walk, garden—all that—until I keel over someday.
There will be balance challenges in class to help all of us work on maintaining and improving our balance.
What are YOU doing?
Share what you have lined up for yourself for 2021! How are you going to keep your tango improving to be ready to dance together? What new cool stuff have you learned to help you do that?