Tuesday, September 25, 2007

A New Amusement

I have been wondering for rather a long while what new hobby I might find to get involved with; those who have known me for many years are aware of my various seasons immersed in ballroom dance, Japanese culture, Bollywood movies, and needlework. Well, I may have found a new favorite activity.

It's English Country Dancing.

You've seen it before in every single Jane Austen movie; rows of men and women walking in figures, occasionally skipping, etc. It goes back to the 1600s, and until individual pairs dancing came on the scene with the waltz around 1800, it was the socially accepted form of dance. Many of the steps and figures are reminiscent in square dancing and even line dancing (to a lesser extent).


I went to an adult continuing education class for it last night, and it was enormous fun. I can deal with exercise as long as it involves learning dance sequences! It was quite a workout, since you're almost continually moving, and you really have to focus to remember the exact sequence. The class is predominently women, so you have to take turns switching gender, but since the steps are almost uniformly the same for both men and women, it's fairly easy.

I was relieved that for a regular class like this, people wear t-shirts and regular clothes; few women actually wore skirts. I really worked up a sweat, so I'm going to start wearing workout clothes, I think!

The class meets every Monday night from 7 to 9 at Cohn Adult Learning Center off of Charlotte Pike. It's very easy to jump in, and I highly recommend it, for a workout that won't bore you to death!

2 comments:

Mike Howell said...

No, I am in no way surprised. This is completely up your alley.

So when do you get to do it in the appropriate clothing?

Susania said...

if I attend any of the special cotillions or balls - probably won't, since it means a serious investment in costuming!