You can finally learn to dance because of coronavirus
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It was a Tuesday afternoon, and a work colleague wanted me to help her answer a question.
I said sure, but not right away.
"I have to take my musical theater dance class first," I added.
That afternoon at 3 p.m., I put my "stepped out" sign on Slack and headed to the Facebook page of my friend, choreographer Christopher Noffke.
A few dozen of us Noffke followers shrugged anxiety off our shoulders, snapped our super-dry fingers to the beat and flicked our toes as Idina Menzel asked us poor souls, "Don't you want to be the life of the party?" (It's from Andrew Lippa's Broadway smash hit or whatever, "The Wild Party.")
Oh, Idina! Any party, virtual or real, will do at this point.
Noffke is one of a flock of dancers and instructors around the world who are hosting a tidal wave of weekly dance classes on Facebook, Zoom and Instagram Live. Most are free or only request a donation, even though Noffke and other class teachers are often out of work.
Noffke said his class gives him a creative outlet during a difficult time.
"I wasn't ready to shut the door and just, you know, go under the sheets," Noffke said. "I look forward to that hour that I get to spend with all these people."
Dance like nobody's watching
I suggest you use a laptop to prop up your phone and set a long mirror nearby.
This pandemic is giving both non-dancers and dancers the chance to learn from the industry's top professionals without worrying about a class schedule or your own schedule. Fans don't need to pony up $20 per class (although donations are welcome) and no one needs talent or ability or previous training.
That's even true if you're dancing (in your living room) with the world's premiere ballet companies.
American Ballet Theatre principals Isabella Boylston and James B. Whiteside are hosting Instagram Live class called #thecindiesballetclass.
"Dance like no one's watching," said Whiteside, repeating common dance advice. "And nobody is, because you're in your living room."
Boylston said their first class brought in nearly 17,000 viewers, which she pointed out is four times the size of the audience they get when performing one night at the Metropolitan Opera House. The class is best if you do know a bit of ballet terminology, but it doesn't hurt to try it anyway. They use the classes to raise money for different organizations, and their favorite is their own ABT Crisis Relief Fund.
Dancing is good for you
The Cindies Sci Fi Day: Teachers love to see your comments, but keep in mind there's a lag before they'll see them on their end.
Everyone is even more dangerously sedentary than usual right now, all missing out on those crucial walking meetings and walks to and from the office cafeteria. While you could go for a jog, science shows that dance has added benefits.
"If you're not a dancer and you start taking some dance classes, you might see really a spike in your gray matter in your brain," said Terry Ferebbe Eckmann, department chair of the teacher education and kinesiology department at Minot State University. "You are waking up new neurons and making new connections that you haven't made before."
Eckmann and her colleagues published a study (PDF) last fall showing that 37 women past retirement age who took Zumba or YogaFit for 12 weeks significantly increased their cognitive function.
"Our oldest participant in the Zumba group was 91," said Eckmann. "And it just showed that, wow, this really woke things up in that person's brain."
Dance requires you to mimic what the teacher is not just saying but doing, Eckmann said. That demands that multiple parts of the brain work together with the body.
You're also getting your blood pumping and learning new dance combinations, all while listening to mood-boosting music. Lavinia Teixeira Machado studies dance's positive effects on autism and conditions like cerebral palsy as a professor in the department of health education at Universidade Federal de Sergipe in Brazil. She also looks at its cultural importance.
"I would like to emphasize that dance and music probably evolved as ways to generate rhythm," Teixeira Machado said."But dance goes far beyond that: It has the capacity to transmit ideas."
Ballerina Boylston said dance class transmits positive ones.
"It forces you to just like concentrate on your body and on the present moment, and it gives you endorphins," Boylston said. "So, I feel like if you do a little bit of movement every day, your anxiety may be diminished significantly."
How to find the party and the dance classes
Atlanta writer Dana Hudepohl found an online class that Alvin Ailey teacher Lanaya Straker, aka TweetBoogie, was teaching, and she shared it with her 12-year-old.
When she saw her daughter learning Alvin Ailey dance moves, Hudepohl decided to join in. The routine became a fun way to challenge her Ohio-based sister and niece to
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