Look what I bought yesterday…

Tap Shoes!

Yep, I bought some sneaker-type Capezio tap shoes. Got them on a clearance special from Dancecraft.

Aren’t they cool? Plus, the added bonus of being easy on my wide, high-arched feet. I might even be able to put my orthotics into them. Frankly, I’m not sure if that last sentence makes me happy or sad.

Anyway, I enjoyed the 5 beginner tap classes I did in the summer so much I’ve signed up for a long haul adult beginner class with Classic Steps Stage Productions. (I would provide the link but it seems to be down. If you’re interested in signing up for some adult tap classes in Delta, leave me a comment.)

My first class was last night. It’s a lot of fun, but about 45 minutes in, my brain is full. It’s going to take some time and practice to build that tap dance neural net I guess. My affirmations during the next little while will be: My brain is plastic. My brain is plastic. My brain is plastic.

The teacher is great because (I’m finding her approach similar to JUMP Math actually) when a student (read: me) is confused, she breaks the steps down into the absolutely smallest increments. She believes you can always make it simpler. We beginners have trouble chunking 5 steps together, while the students that have been doing it for even just a little bit longer than us, move more quickly along that path.

It’s the first dancing I’ve ever done, where you learn a dance step more by how it sounds, than by how it looks — it’s very auditory instead of spatial.

I’ve become interested in the idea that I will practice the things that are fun rather than the things that I believe are good for me. So, I’m trying to find the ways in which I WANT to move rather than just guilting myself into lifting weights at the gym.

So, tell me, how do you combine enjoyment with that yucky word ‘fitness’?