By Brandon Perpich
Welcome to what will most likely be the last installment of Blogging Ballroom with Brandon! Don’t worry… just for the year :). First off, we couldn’t have done it without all of our wonderful clients; we are so so grateful for every single one :). They make our “job” tremendously rewarding and we hope they realize how much we appreciate them. Now… onto the topic du jour. New Year’s Resolutions: If you’re like me, you’ve had COUNTLESS New Year’s Resolutions over the years. TYPICALLY I stick to them for… about a week. And then I’m back to my normal way of doing things. Why?!?! It could be that it’s absolutely no fun, there’s no accountability, or the rewards take too long. The great thing about dance is that it sort of solves all those things. Dancing is (should be) a BLAST; you have a team of teachers looking out for your best interest and making sure you get what you want from your dance lessons, and letting you know about the progress you’re making (see, problems solved :-D). That makes dance the perfect avenue to achieve your 2019 goals, regardless of what they are. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular New Year’s Resolutions and how learning to dance can pair with pretty much all of them.
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Exercise More/Lose Weight (Overall Well Being):
I would guess that this is the NUMBER 1 New Year’s Resolution for most people. I’ve had a gym membership for 2 years and went, maybe 3 times. They did nothing wrong, it was just torture to get myself there. Dancing can be used as a GREAT form of exercise to help tone the muscles, build strength, serve as a great cardiovascular workout, and bring about a whole new level of body awareness. All through dancing! An extra perk is that dance is a very low impact activity, making it much easier on the joints than other forms of exercise (something that anyone of any age can do). One other thing that makes dance unique from other exercises is that it’s a tremendous exercise for the mind as well. There are countless studies about the impact of dancing’s ability to help prevent/slow down dementia, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s. Note to current students: If you want dancing to serve as a great exercise, let your team know. They will make sure to keep you moving during the lesson and give you some exercises to build/tone muscles.
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Spend quality time w/ significant other:
No one likes to admit this, but over the years couples can grow/change as people or get disconnected from one another. Nothing to be ashamed about, it just happens. For that reason, a lot of couples turn to the New Year to get jump started on some much needed quality time together. What better way to reconnect than by actually holding each other, looking at each other (in a non-creepy way), and moving together. Dancing is communicating to your partner without words, the positive applications of which carry over to your daily activities. Dancing can do wonderful things for a relationship if you let it. Note to current students: The one caveat with this is to let your team do the teaching. When something doesn’t feel right, it’s easy to point it out. Trust me, your teachers can usually tell. We know it comes from a helpful place, but when couples start to point out what’s wrong, it can often feel like picking, regardless of how it’s said. If something comes up that you feel needs to be addressed, we absolutely want to know, and want you to communicate with us. Just maybe tell your team without your significant other within earshot so we can approach it more delicately.
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Make New Friends:
Given that people nowadays are more prone to sit and stare at their phones than interact with actual real life humans, people are constantly looking for ways to connect with others. Searching for ways to get plugged into a different/new social group. The hard part is finding… people. What avenues encourage actual socialization? That’s where dancing can be a HUGE benefit. Most dance studios have tremendously nice people who love dancing and the benefits it provides. We have an AMAZING group of people at our studio. They are the absolute nicest people you could hope to meet: extremely friendly, always encouraging, and tremendously easy to talk to (I’m partial to our crew obviously). We do social outings as a studio that can last an evening, a day, or even a weekend. We’ve even arranged several out of state activities to foster that sense of community. Dancing is a great way to meet new people and make new friends if you wish it to be.
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Travel:
Mmmmm… Travel… it sounds great. And it is. There is nothing quite like experiencing other parts of the country or world. It gives you a brand new perspective on so many things. Now obviously, dancing itself isn’t going to make you travel. However, it can help ease or augment the travel experience. By ease, I simply mean that it’s hard sometimes to determine where to go or when. There are lots of dance vacations that if you don’t really want to do any of the planning, it’s all planned for you. There are dance vacations throughout the year in wonderful places like Hawaii, San Francisco, Miami, Prague, or even Japan! If you know where you want to go already, dancing is a great enhancer to any trip. How awesome would it be to do a Tango in Paris (LIKE THE MOVIE!!), or a Waltz in Austria? Dancing can help create unforgettable moments that turn into long lasting memories:). One of my favorite memories is dancing with Kristen in the High Roller (a huge Ferris wheel-type ride) in Las Vegas. Imagine what memories you can create in 2019.
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Get a New Hobby:
I believe this one is fairly self explanatory. As the New Year comes along, people are looking to learn/grow/expand/become better versions of themselves. They pursue this through a variety of different hobbies, whether that be woodworking, learning to play drums, or learning how to speak a new language. Now I’m admittedly a bit biased on this one, but I believe dancing is one of the best hobbies one could pursue. It has the ability to do almost what all of those other hobbies provide and so much more. Not only do you learn how to dance, the actual skill of it, but you learn how to control your body better, you learn how to communicate in a completely new way. I would be hard pressed to find another hobby that has so many positive attributes.
Thank you for sticking with me for another year. You have been wonderful and I am eternally grateful to live in this wonderful city doing what I love, with such amazing people. Look out for some great and new things coming from your Arthur Murray West Chester Team.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
