Let's Dance

One of the reasons I love tweetups is you get to try something new with a bunch of other people and you usually end up supporting a local business. You may remember my earlier post about the Artisano tweetup I organized back in November 2010. After that tweetup, I got the idea for another, one that did not revolve around eating.

I've been dancing almost my whole life. I did Jazz and Ballet as a child/teenager and as an adult kept going adding Hip Hop and finally learning Tap. After a very long absence from ballet, I went back to classes last year. Keeping up with dancing is one of the best things I've every done for myself. I really don't know what I would do without it. It calms me in a way gym workouts never have.

So for my second tweetup I wanted to take a group of people dancing! Great idea right? Well it was a bit slow to take off but was still successful. I always knew I wanted to partner with City Dance Corps on this one. They have a great schedule of a variety of classes at different levels of dance. They were on board with the tweetup as soon as I contacted them. We both agreed a Beginner Hip Hop class would have the most interest for people. For people who have never danced before a Beginner class would be challenging. I set up the invite and starting tweeting about it like crazy! We didn't have a full tweetup but I was very impressed with the people who did come. Most had not ever danced before. We had men, we had women and everyone was really excited to dance. There was some apprehension over the hour and a half class but I told them it would go by very quickly, and it did.

Going through the moves.

Our teacher was KJ who was both a great dancer and teacher, his sense of humour helped put people at ease. After the warm up we went right into learning a combination and pretty soon all of my Twitter friends were dancing! I was like a proud Mom. It was fun to see people doing something they didn't think they could do. More than one person commented they had a new respect for dancers. It isn't as easy as it looks.

Now usually during a tweetup there are lots of tweets flying from all attendees. Doing that while dancing is a bit difficult but of course this group somehow managed. Pictures and video are also evidence of their efforts and participation. Some people from our group even went back the next week for another class. I think they'll be dancers for life now. It really was a fun afternoon and everyone enjoyed themselves. It was over before we knew it and we headed to a pub to discuss this new found talent everyone had.

The group looks on as the other group performs.

Time for tweets and video taking.

I'm hoping to organize a part 2 in the very near future. If you would be interested in attending, let me know either through a comment on here or on twitter @Notashopaholic. You can also follow hash tag #CDCTO for info and up to date tweets.
Happy Dancing everyone!

Group photo with our teacher KJ

A very special thank you to City Dance Corps and Estelle for being so welcoming to our group. The class we took runs every Saturday at 1:30. It can be hard to find classes for experienced adult dancers and from all of my research I find City Dance Corps to have one of the best selection of classes and levels. Check them out and tell them I sent you!

City Dance Corps
489 Queen St. W 3rd floor
Toronto, ON
ph: 416-260-2356

Video of our class