Dance Church

     

Post-finals and graduation, campus is so quiet and nothing is open. This week, the gym and the chapel are having their floors redone, so I was stuck on a Sunday morning with rainy weather, no gym, and no church. I trekked to downtown LA to take a dance class called Dance Church.

Created by Kate Wallich in Seattle, Dance Church is an organization that hosts weekly classes in Seattle, Portland, LA, and New York. Like most drop-in dance classes, each class is taught by local professional dancers at central dance venues. But unlike most dance classes, this one is set entirely to the latest pop music hits and features a 90-minute messy sweaty dance workout party. All ages and abilities are welcomed, and the class emphasizes self-care and community.

To be completely honest, I did not really want to go to this class. I had heard good things from my dancer friends and seen testimonials on social media, but I knew that it was not something I was going to be comfortable with. There is no familiar ballet barre or modern warm-up. After an oppressively long Lyft ride through rainy LA, I made it to the Sweat Spot, a dance studio on Sunset Boulevard. The class started at 10am, and it was a nonstop improvisation of entirely social dancing.

Although I am a dancer, I do not consider myself to be very good at social dancing. My experiences with social dancing are often awkward; picture teachers with flashlights at high school dances or college parties where I am more worried about avoiding drunk people than dancing. Plus, my dancer brain kicks in, and I always judge everything I do. It is impossible for me to let go and "just dance."

This class was so different. Nobody was looking at what I was doing, there were no flashlights, and nobody was drunk. Honestly, it felt like 90 minutes of everyone letting out their inner dork, accompanied by some Beyoncé. We all grooved in our little spaces until the end of the class when we joined arms.

I genuinely enjoyed the experience, and even though I felt nervous about going by myself, it offered me some much needed reflection time. In the middle of the sweaty mess, I was reminded of some writing my longtime friend, Ali Alderman, did on her blog. She writes: "I began to see God more clearly as something that is present in the things that I do (like making art, spending time with people I love, eating, etc.) rather than the nouns I produce (like homework, jobs, projects, etc.)." This particular post titled, God is a Verb, rang true for me during Dance Church.

Lately, it seems everyone has an opinion on what people can and cannot do with their own bodies. In this politically charged and divisive environment, everyday embodied living becomes a political statement. Dance Church takes that in stride, reclaiming body and community, celebrating God in a bunch of different bodies shaking their hips.