I can proudly say that my friends are some of the most talented and gifted people I know (and that’s including yours truly). Life can be pretty interesting when your nearest and dearest are the Bright Young Things of tomorrow, including my good friend Vanessa, an award winning dancer who has repeatedly triumphed at nationwide competitions. The reason behind my Vanessa love-fest (which will no doubt send her ego flying sky high) is because she was the brains behind my challenge for Day 35. With her prowess in all-things-dance, she recommended I attend one of her regular classes. Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s time to Bust a Move.
For my formal initiation into the world of organised dance (I’ve dabbled before, by which I mean I’ve done the robot many, many times), there's nowhere better to go than London’s Mecca of pirouettes and time steps: Pineapple Dance Studios. Made famous by the ultra-camp reality show depicting life within the dance school, Pineapple offers classes in basically all kinds of dance, from hip hop to contemporary, from cheerleading to pole dancing. It may not be cheap and it may be full of ego-maniacs mincing through the corridors – Louie Spence, you know who you are – but Pineapple really does do the dance world proud. And it’s open to all levels, even hopeless cases like me. Score!
With the location of my class decided, my sister – who had been coerced into accompanying me on this venture – and I then had to pick the style of dance I wanted to master. Although I came dangerously close to choosing pole dancing (which would have made a highly interesting blog entry), I eventually had to ask myself that all important question: which style will embarrass me the least? I settled upon “Commercial Jazz”, which I presumed would be a cross between routines from Chicago and Disney. Not so much.
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| Strictly Come Awesome |
The class started with a warm up, which filled me with slight angst. My sister, having been to a similar class elsewhere, had frightful memories of being forced to do sit-ups and stretch yourself in highly unnatural and inappropriate ways. I wasn’t really up for this; in the words of Dynamite’s Taio Cruz, “I came to dance, dance, dance, dance”. I did not come to sweat, ache, burn and toil. Fortunately, the warm up was quite a relaxed affair. Our teacher, Karen, was bubbly (if not slightly zany) and didn’t try to push us too hard. Thank heavens.
It was soon time to learn the routine. I was ready for jazz hands and razzle dazzle and any other term with a double-z in it. Karen dramatically revealed that we would be dancing to “Alone Again” by Alyssa Reid feat. P Reign, a song which has recently been big in the charts. Hm. This wasn’t quite what I expected. Where was the theatricality? Where was the old school glamour?
Although the routine was less 1940s and more Top 40, it was still enjoyable. It started with some sexy-style body rolls, which obviously I exceed in (lolz), and then we got into the slightly “street” section of the choreography. Soon enough, I was popping and dropping like a pro, channelling my inner bad boy and making Eminen look like a public school tory boy. Well, in my eyes at least. After learning a slightly bizarre “floor section” – which basically involved us rolling around and lying face downwards – we had completed the routine. Time to put it all together: time to shine.
After performing the routine with as much vim and vigour as possible (I particularly enjoyed the section where we step-ball-changed while air punching), the class was over. And this is where my day was made: Karen actually came and commended me and my sister on our efforts. Some may interpret this as a sign of “must try harder”. I understood it as a hint we should move on to the more advanced class. She was totally digging us Dancing Queens.
Day 35: Get into the Groove. CHECK!
Peace & Love,
Rich xx
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