FORT SILL, Okla., Jan. 28, 2016 -- I don't know about you but I love dancing.
I started dancing when I was in second grade, taking ballet and through the years added on hip hop, step, swing and tap. I've performed with the Fort Worth ballet company's production of "The Nutcracker," in Broadway's "Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat" and small productions in local theater.
If I can sing while I'm dancing then that's just icing on the cake.
While I was deployed I learned to line dance. There was a Soldier in Afghanistan who loved to line dance and salsa and she would organize these events and invite people to come learn. I would attend and even convinced my unit to let me escort the Afghan air crews we were training to the lessons. They never got the steps down quite right, but we all had fun learning.
I saw a flyer for line dancing when I first arrived in Lawton, and made a mental note to look into it later. Of course, it would take me almost a year before I did but one quick inquiry got me in touch with Cheryl-Ann Fogle.
Fogle, along with Rick Clyburn, teach line and swing dance at Cameron University, Great Plains Technology Center and they also have a class they teach at the Old Legion Building off Exit 45 to Medicine Park.
She invited me to come check it out, and I quickly found my dancing shoes (or really just shoes I wouldn't trip in -- I haven't danced since I had my baby so it's better to be safe than fall face first on the dance floor).
I decided to go to the class taught at the Great Plains Technology Center (side bar: did you know they teach all sorts of classes there at super-affordable prices? The dance class, for example, is $19. That's the full price. And you can get a $10 discount online. Crazy!).
The class takes place in what looks like a massive hallway and if I'm honest I wasn't super impressed. The long-time dancer in me started to get a little snobby and then my inner voice said, "Hey, Monica. You don't even know how to line dance. Shut up." Granted, I know how to electric slide and I can "Cupid-Shuffle" with the best of them, but my inner voice is pretty aggressive and usually right. So I checked my snobbiness and entered the dance class with an open mind.
Young children are not generally permitted because of liability issues (they have this way of getting between your legs), but a last- minute lack of babysitter meant my 2-year-old boy was coming with me, and Fogle said that was alright -- this time. We stood to the side and I hoped my boy wouldn't go running off (which, of course, he did the moment I put him down).
The class began with simple steps, the grapevine and a jazz box put together with other steps to create the "Eagle Eye," a dance we were going to learn in honor of the late Eagle's band member, Glenn Frey.
Fogle explained how many people think line dancing is just to country music, but that the steps can be used with many types. In the class they try to incorporate all types of music and dances.
"You're probably not going to like all the music we play and you're probably not going to like all the dances we do," she said. "But that's how we teach the class. A little bit of everything."
As we began to dance, we turned from facing the instructors (12 o'clock) and turned left (9 o'clock) and I began to giggle. The lady in front of me was wearing a shirt with the words "WARNING: Subject to spontaneous outburst of line dance."
The woman in front of her didn't have on a shirt with a clever saying, but she was most certainly embodying the "outburst" portion. She, Carmen Hevr, knew the dance steps and was adding what Fogle called "attitude."
I picked up the steps pretty quickly, but was still really excited when we finished a song. Success! I didn't look like a complete fool. I wasn't the only one pumped up by their success. Halfway through the hour-long class Fogle asked if we would like to take a break. The answer was a resounding "no." We were ready to get our dance on.
I asked if they taught ballroom dances since many of my readers are military members or spouses who may have balls to attend. Clyburn explained to me how many of the dances learned can be used at more formal occasions and can be modified to become ballroom dances.
"A waltz is a waltz," he said. "A foxtrot is a two-step. You can dance these to ballroom music. A ballroom waltz and a country waltz work in pretty much the same way. You just have to learn how to execute them properly."
After the class, Clyburn and Fogle showed some moves they would be teaching in their upcoming West Coast Swing class. While the class is designed for beginners, they say more advanced dancers won't be bored. Fogle said the dance class has even been proven to help those who cannot walk. Fogle's daughter, Shiloh, had a stroke in January of 2013, and was told she wouldn't be able to walk well. She began dancing with her walker and by April she could walk.
"We used dance to teach her to walk," said Fogle.
Now Shiloh helps teach the classes along with Fogle and Clyburn.
"If someone is afraid they might look silly line dancing, I remind them that there are no mistakes in line dancing. There are only variations," said Fogle. "Some of us just tend to variate more than others. I freely admit that I still variate. My daughter is all too kind to point it out to me.
There are no line-dance police who will pull you off the floor if that happens.
For more information on the dance classes call Fogle at 580-284-9179 or email dancing_soles@yahoo.com.
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