Diana Durham
SaddleBrooke Dance Club is writing this article in April and we hope that our difficult times have ended. We care about you. However, if social distancing has continued, we still want to dance and learn and we hope you do too. Lee and I found that we were sitting more and moving less, so we searched the internet and found some websites that you might enjoy. These sites certainly are not a substitute for live instruction, but they are fun and very helpful.
DanceWise AZ, an Arizona dance teaching company, has free ballroom dance lessons on their YouTube channel, shorturl.at/bcnxB. On their homepage, click on the video tab. Julianne and Paul Daniels will give you wonderful lessons. They’re also on Facebook doing a 15-minute social dance. Julianne told me, “We are encouraging our students to dress up a bit and join us on Facebook for some music and dance.” Of course, you might do this on your own as a fun date night, but if you connect on Facebook, you can friend DanceWise AZ and join their experience.
Here’s another option. Dance Vision is a national provider of dance instruction. Find them at dancevision.com. You can try a free 30-day streaming subscription to their over 5,000 dance instruction videos produced by the top professionals in the nation. After the 30-day trial, a variety of streaming subscriptions are available, beginning at about $10 a month, or you can buy DVDs on sale right now for $5 each.
So, we bought some instructional DVDs. We schedule dance time at home and are learning some new moves, working on some pretty intricate waltz steps. We take three beats at a time, learn just three steps, and then add three more, etc., replaying the DVDs until we get it. We dance in the great room, moving up and down the space between the living and dining areas. (You really can learn to dance in your living room, or a hallway, or move the car and learn to dance in the garage.)
SaddleBrooke Ballroom Dance Club will be back, offering instruction and dancing as soon as our doors reopen. We will again offer four hours of group classes each week, featuring two different dances at beginning and intermediate levels; two hours of guided practice each week; two different practice dances each week; one monthly dance at the Vistas Dining Room (have dinner or just come and dance); one monthly dinner dance at the MountainView Ballroom.
When our lives are reopened, check sbballroomdance.com. Learn how to join us and find registration times and places for lessons and dances. Our dances are not only fun and great exercise, they are a wonderful way to get together. Social distancing has given us an even greater appreciation of our friends and our time together. Join friends at SBDC where the learning continues and the fun never ends.