Monthly Musing – February 2025 – Like nobody’s watching
Big daughter and I have taken up salsa dancing.
Initially, I decided that it was something I’d try as I have more time whilst not so small daughter is away at university and I think big daughter thought she had to come and keep me company as it can be a bit nerve-wracking to walk into a new class on your own, but now we both love it and the dance classes are a highlight of our week.
Oh, you’ll never see me on any famous TV dancing shows, and I’m pretty certain my enthusiasm outweighs any particular dancing talent, but that hour when we are in the class moving around to the music sees us both laughing (quite hysterically, sometimes!), getting our steps in for the day, raising our heart rates and our spirits, and absolutely embracing the quote: “Dance like nobody’s watching”. The class is suitable for anybody to join with or without a partner, and as we mostly dance together, big daughter and I have been taking it in turns to dance the (traditionally male) lead part which has resulted in all kinds of confusion when we swap over again or if we dance with someone else. Cue the hysterical laughter …
Right from our very first lesson, our teacher has encouraged us to put fun over form, presumably knowing that the more fun we have, the quicker we’ll learn and the faster our form will improve. It’s a good way to teach and an even better way to learn, and every week we are building up our skills with the basic steps, looking less uncoordinated and more like dancers with every session.
It’s a funny thing, but it’s the mistakes that make us learn faster. I’ve been saying this to sock knitting beginners for years – never think about socks not being “perfect” or focussing on the “mistakes”; always think about them as unique design features that will have taught you something along the way, as our brains learn faster when something has to be corrected than when we get it right first time. It’s a bit of a paradox as we get the pleasurable dopamine reward in our brains when we do something right, but it’s actually the doing something wrong that is really teaching us!
Learning through fun or through play is something that we tend to assume that children do, but it’s something that we should all try as adults from time to time because there really is no age limit to learning something new. There shouldn’t be an age limit on having fun either, but we do seem to impose one on ourselves as we grow up – perhaps until we reach an age when we don’t really care too much what others think about us. That certainly wasn’t me during my teenage years, and even for a good few years after that when I would let what “they” might think hold me back – and if this is you, try writing down who “they” are, and you might surprise yourself to find that what’s really holding you back is you!
It’s time to dance like nobody’s watching!
