Heart and Sole

How tap dance lessons are rocking my world

Photo by Nadim Merrikh on Unsplash

“Practice those riffs, girl,” my tap dance teacher said as I left the studio. “You got this!”

I laughed and said I would.

Then I walked home through my neighborhood in the dark, every now and then stopping to practice my steps and my taps.

No music, no teacher, no shame.

Just a grown woman living her best life, laughing and dancing down the street.

In my mind, this is what I looked like.

I did it!

I went against everything in my being and took a second tap dance lesson.

I was feeling so utterly afraid and idiotic for going through with it, I decided to walk to class. That’ll get my blood pumping and distract me from my foolishness, I thought.

Here’s the thing:

I’m not good at tap dancing.

There were only two of us in the class, and the teacher kept looking at me and saying, “For yoooouuuuuu, we’ll just stick with the basic steps.”

The other woman got to do all twelve steps while I stuck with five.

My teacher was wonderful and patient and super encouraging. At one point she shouted, “YES!!!” so loud when I got a step right, I thought I had just won a medal.

But it was clear she was having to earn her money exponentially more with me, than with the other student.

What I really looked like.

But here’s the other thing:

I’m not giving up.

It’s not about becoming the best tap dancer in the world. I suppose I would have had to start practicing at least 30 years ago for that.

It’s about so much more than being good at tap dancing.

It’s about adventure, fun, and sweet joy. It’s about self-confidence, self-love, and growth. It’s about sweat, discomfort, and sore muscles.

I woke up this morning feeling sore all over. There are muscles aching in places that don’t make sense. Like the side of my neck, for example. How on earth did tap dancing make the side of my neck sore?

But it feels. so. good.

Even the moments of embarrassment that almost crept in as I tried to learn the moves felt. so. good.

You know why? BECAUSE DANCING IS MY FAVORITE THING IN THE ENTIRE WORLD TO DO!

And guess what?

Tonight I will learn a new dance. A line dance, to be exact. That’s right, I’m a dancing machine!

I will keep on living into my fullest life. I will keep going after those things that bring me joy. I will keep putting myself in the way of light and love and laughter.

I will keep dancing!

Thank you for reading!🌻✌🏻You can read about my first tap dance lesson here:

What I Learned from My First Tap Dance Lesson