Practice What You Teach: Hip Hop Pilates & a Proud Mom moment!

My absolute favorite movement experience this week was taking Duane Lee Holland’s Hip Hop Groove class with my 7 year old daughter Aubri.  Like most 7 year olds Aubri loves to dance, do cartwheels and handstands, jump on the trampoline and do just about anything where she is active.  When we’re home she will spend hours listening to music, creating her own choreography or “shows” as she calls them and of course performing them for my husband and me.  Many days the two of us just put on music and dance and often she coaches me and teaches me a dance.  To me, this is how movement should be – creative and fun!

I have to admit that even though I love to move like this at home in the privacy of our house, I’m usually the last person you would find doing something like dancing (especially hip hop dancing) in any sort of public location! Somewhere in my life I started believing that dancing wasn’t really my thing and that I was way too uncoordinated to dance (especially in public, in front of people who might think the same thing). So for many years I’ve avoided it! Which really has made me feel like a little bit of a hypocrite. I mean I have a whole life and business built around teaching people to empower their body through movement and I was nervous and avoiding dancing in public because of what I might think others thought when they saw my dance moves!

This leads to one of the wonderful things about having children- they teach you a lot about yourself.  I really believe in leading by example and so in my heart of hearts I knew that I wanted be a good example for my daughter of loving yourself, being willing to try new things and being willing to get outside your comfort zone. So last week I put myself out there and tried Hip Hop Groove Class with Duane…and it was super fun, a great workout and no one laughed or made fun of my dancing abilities(at least in front of me!)

When I had the chance to take another class and bring Aubri with me I knew it would be a great experience for her.  Not only would she get to meet a professional dancer and learn from him, but she would have the chance to be in a room full of women who were being vulnerable enough to try something new, dance and move their bodies, and just plain have fun moving.  I also had a super proud Mom moment when we got to the portion of class where Duane added in the beginning of the Pilates Mat sequence and I looked over to see Aubri doing all of the exercises with great form and control! I love that she is learning Pilates in her body and will have that practice that she can incorporate into the rest of her life.

I want to thank Duane for bringing his love of movement and dance to the studio and creating such a supportive, non-judgemental atmosphere for everyone to learn and move. Also a big thank you for all the women that showed up for class that night and just enjoyed the experience, moved their bodies and had fun!  Just by being yourself and trying something new you helped shaped my daughter’s ideas on what movement can look like and how it should feel…. fun!!!