A friend of mine invited me to go to a West African dance
class. Since I had no idea what this might entail I confirmed with her that it
would be a beginners class. She affirmed yes. I figured how difficult
could it be I’ve been taking Zumba classes twice a week for the last 8 months!
A few hours before the class I went on the dance studios website to get the
address to input into Hopstop. If you live in the city and haven’t used Hopstop
you must try it. It works like MapQuest but for mass transit. So while
getting the address I figured I would look at all the classes offered at the
dance studio. To my dismay I saw the class I was about to go to was an
intermediate class! I immediately sent a snarky text message to my friend upon
which time she stated, “You’ll be fine.” Fine I thought! Hmmm.
When I arrived my friend gave me a wraparound skirt to wear
over my exercise pants. Isn’t this going to be difficult to
move in I thought to myself! Great, not only do I not know what I’m doing but my movement is going
to be restricted by a wraparound skirt! By the way, West Africans call this
wrap around skirt a Lappa.
I was happily surprised when we entered the dance
studio. There were three drummers who were to play music as we danced. Wow! All I’ve
ever experienced in dance classes is an iPod attached to a sound system. I also noticed everyone was bare foot. Just like
yoga I thought.
The class was amazing. Some of the steps I had previously
done in Zumba but the majority of the steps were new and intriguing. I definitely
build up a sweat during the class. I definitely plan on attending an African dance class again.
During my weight loss process I’ve learned that one way to sustain ones
interest in physical activity is to continually introduce new activities.
Hummmm…… What will be next, maybe belly dancing??
To learn more about African dance check out these two videos:
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