Tap-dancing - I full-filled a life-long dream to learn to Tap dance today! I had my very first Tap-Dancing class and I loved every minute of it.
As a little girl I would sit glued to Shirley Temple movies, just to watch the tap dancing scenes and then when I was older I was enthralled by "Tap-Dogs", to be honest I will watch tap-dancing at any opportunity. Who would have thought that in retirement I could still do this.
If you've always dreamed of dancing like Fred Astaire or Shirley Temple, all it takes are a few tap classes to get you shuffling romantically across the dance floor.
But best of all, tap is a very sociable hobby which is guaranteed to make you laugh and have fun.
A key ingredient of tap is balance, so it's great for those looking to improve their posture. Many of the steps involve keeping your bodyweight over your feet which means using your deep postural muscles - the muscles that wrap around your middle like a natural girdle. This not only improves posture in your lower back, but also helps you develop a flatter stomach.
Movements include 'winging' - a complicated hop that produces three sounds, 'pick-ups' - where you jump and land on the opposite foot - and 'shuffles' - a step where you move back and forth with the ball of your foot.
This combination of moves, say teachers, produces a gentle aerobic workout where the heart is elevated, bringing fresh oxygen to your lungs and tissue. Even better, one hour of tap dancing is thought to burn around 250 calories.
Many of the moves involve lifting arms above the shoulders which strengthens and tones the lower and upper arms. And, bottoms also get a good workout, thanks to moving continuously back and forth at a fast pace.
To my surprise the age range in my beginners class was from about 45 to 70! There was only about 6 of us in the beginners class and the teacher doesn't start slow - she just gets the music on and says "follow-me"!. It would appear that the less you concentrate and just let the rhythm of the music take over the quicker you learn.....We had the best time and can't wait till next Wednesday!
...and remember...have a fabulous retirementLIFE....
