Let's Dance!

We meet some folks from around the motu who swear by dance classes to keep their hearts, minds, fitness, coordination – and don’t forget diabetes – in balance.

CEROC® MODERN JIVE AND POLE

Hamiltonian Erica Waters has been doing Ceroc® and pole dancing for two years. She rediscovered her love of dance in her 40s, first with Ceroc then pole followed once she started meeting other dancers. ‘I met an advanced dancer who also runs a pole studio. We got to know each other, and she said, “I think you would love doing flow,” which is dancing with a pole and floorwork, rather than the aerial tricks some do. “You should come try it out,” she said. And I did and was hooked on that too.’

Coined from the French, ‘c’est le roc’, Ceroc® is a brand of modern jive and hails from London. It is a social partner dance and is generally done to chart toppers and old favourites.

Erica dances three days a week, goes to Ceroc dance parties every month, and competes in modern jive competitions every couple of months. ‘A class is three hours of non-stop dancing. I find that I’m all hyped up when I get home and it takes me ages to calm down. But dancing as an exercise has got rid of my insulin resistance. When I first started dancing, I was taking Metformin as I was becoming insulin resistant, but after three months of dancing I stopped taking it and felt much better for it.

Erica enjoys Ceroc modern jive for the cardio and social aspect, and pole dancing for strength training. ‘I think there are massive benefits of finding an exercise you love. And something you can consistently do definitely far outweighs the troubleshooting you have to do with your insulin, exercise, and eating.’

‘I think people get really hung up about exercise for weight loss. That hasn’t happened for me. I am not small, but I am really strong and really fit. I’ve dropped two to three dress sizes and gained a lot of muscle since I started dancing, but my weight on the scales is exactly the same.’ — Erica Waters

SCOTTISH COUNTRY DANCING

Deborah Shuker has been a Scottish Country Dancer for 13 years. Eleven years after being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, Deborah had a heart attack, and it was then that she knew she needed to find a fun way to exercise regularly. She didn’t want to join a gym as she saw that as a solo endeavour and knew she wouldn’t stick to it. She tried ballroom too but found it wasn’t her thing either. A newspaper ad for a beginner’s course in Scottish Country Dancing caught her eye and she’s never looked back. ‘It’s perfect for me. It’s promoted as fun, fitness, and friendly, and it is all of that. It exercises your body and exercises your mind. And you don’t have to come with a partner. And it’s ridiculously cheap!’

Scottish Country Dancing is a fun social activity, usually done in groups of six. A tutor gives out instructions at the beginning, the music starts, and you all follow the sequences, which inevitably become easier as you gain experience. There are different levels of difficulty, and you can choose to join in or sit out and watch. At the annual Ball, Deborah says there are always a couple of dances for the most experienced. That is when she enjoys sitting back and watching the mastery. ‘They’re beautiful to watch, and live music gives a great atmosphere.’

Deborah says dancing is good for one’s mental health. One attraction for is the warm community, and another is for the regular memory exercise. ‘In some pieces, there are 46 bars of music and you have to remember what you’re meant to be doing in those 46 bars. You need to remember where you’re dancing, where you need to be, who you’re dancing with, and what’s going to happen next. It’s a lot of memory stuff, but it’s not necessarily Einstein material.’

Deborah Shuker, left, dancing The Kingston Flyer, an easy dance for beginners.

© LORALEE HYDE

KAPA HAKA

Waitaha local Atama Moore (Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Te Ata o Waiohua) grew up doing kapa haka, loving it so much that he chose to study it at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, earning a degree in it after three years.

‘Kapa haka is the best – everyone should do it. Not just Māori, everyone, because it teaches you absolutely everything you need to know about life. It teaches you social skills, because you have to fight for your place. (There’s a team of 40, and 70 people might audition for those places.) It teaches you physicality, it keeps you fit, and there’s hand–eye coordination, especially with some of the implements that are used – the rākau, taiaha, patu, poi for our wāhine and even for some of our tāne who are using the poi now. There’s the spiritual element. Literature, even. There’s writing songs based on events that you want to sing about. And there’s haka. There’s so much to it that really benefits almost every single aspect of one’s life.’

Atama feels his regular practice of kapa haka has been healing in respect to his type 1 diabetes. ‘Not healing in that it makes your blood sugars stable – if anything, it does the opposite. When you’ve got all this adrenaline rushing, it launches blood sugars skyrocketing. But for me, it gives me that release, so for that brief moment I’m no longer someone with diabetes. Instead, I am a proud Māori man who is practicing his culture, and among his people, his iwi, his whānau, and among his peers who I absolutely adore and love.’

From the outside looking in, Atama says, it might just look like just a performance, but there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye.

‘Especially if you don’t understand te reo Māori, it looks just like a performing group. But if you are involved and you’ve got understanding of different items within this big bracket, you can see it’s a deep, deep thing.’

HIP HOP

Our youngest dancer, Honor Van Rij, is set on being a dancer when she grows up. For the last two and a half years, the 10-year-old has been busy with hip hop classes in her hometown, Ōtepoti, Dunedin.

‘Honor moves with poise and assurance,’ her mum Carrie proudly says. She firmly believes dance has given her daughter the body confidence she lacked previously. Honor battles an anxiety disorder, but dance, movement, activities, and friendships have given her a confidence that overrides some of the anxiety, she says. ‘Diabetes has improved her anxiety as well, which is bizarre.’

Honor was diagnosed with type 1 last year, and her mum says it has been the making of her daughter. ‘Before the diagnosis, she never went on playdates, she was very Velcro. Within a month of her diagnosis, she was willing to go on sleepovers. I think all of the nervous tension that previously had nowhere to go has gone into managing her diabetes. And that has given her an outlet, and she’s not as anxious in general. It’s definitely not gone. There’s some hiccups, but it’s a complete world of difference from where we were a year ago.’

Hip hop is a vibrant form of dance that combines a variety of freestyle movements to create a cultural piece of art. Through its three main styles of popping, locking, and breaking, hip hop has evolved into one of the most popular and influential styles of dance.

Honor always looks forward to her dance school’s end of year show. The 2024 show was held in Dunedin Town Hall to an excited audience.

© Edith Leigh Photography

LINE DANCING AND BALLROOM

Aucklanders Daphne and Colin Hoy Fong were introduced to ballroom dancing through their daughter. She already had a history of dance under her belt and wanted to give ballroom a go. But not wanting to try her first class alone, she asked her parents if they would like to come along as well, which they did, quickly becoming regulars, and that was 24 years ago.

The same year that they started ballroom dancing, Colin was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. He credits both his upbringing and his regular dancing with keeping it under control.

The couple does a mix of dance classes. On Sunday nights, they go to line dancing, held at the Auckland Chinese Community Centre at Māngere Bridge. Colin points out that a good thing about line dancing is that you don’t need a partner, you can just do it on your own.

On Tuesdays, at the same venue, Colin and Daphne go to a smaller class for ballroom and dance solidly for an hour and a half. Colin is 78 years young and Daphne is 74, but they’re quick to add that there’s plenty of dancers who are older than them. ‘We’re not young dancers. Most of our crowd is 6080 years old.’

‘We’ve always done it as a form of exercise, because with dance you’re exercising, yet you don’t feel like you’re exercising. It’s a fun way of doing it.’ Colin adds, ‘It keeps your mind alert too, doing line dancing, because we learn new dances all the time. It makes our brain work. I hate to think what we would be like if we didn’t.’

With dances happening at least two times a week and practices to attend, Colin and Daphne are two very busy people, and they believe the routines keep them young.

SHUT UP AND DANCE

If formal and ‘proper’ dance classes aren’t your thing, and you want to completely let your hair down and get a bit goofy, then perhaps learning simplified versions of the kind of dancing you see in music videos might float your boat.

Wellingtonian Rewa Murphy started dancing when she was three where she says she tried all the dance styles on offer. She has been involved with Shut up and Dance for eight years, first as a punter, and then teaching for the last five. Rewa is one of a handful of their teachers who guide dancers through unpacking cheesy dance moves and the classes attract a steady and devoted following.

‘I love being able to teach people who maybe have never been to a dance class in their whole life. They come in looking super nervous but leave being Beyoncé. It makes me so happy.

‘Any measure of fitness that a newbie has when walking into a class for the first time is enough’, says Rewa. ‘If they can walk, they can do the class. I think that our target market is a wide variety. We have people come to the class who are absolute professionals who want to have fun. And then those who have never exercised in many years. And that’s great. You’re here. You walked in the door. You get some exercise.’

Among many other benefits, Rewa says that dance helps her headspace. Recovering from ‘making a person’ a year ago, Rewa also works in mental health for her day job so dancing is what helps her get through work, life, and the frustrating parts of diabetes.

She hopes that the fun dance she teaches serves as an excellent example of not taking oneself too seriously. ‘We’re practicing being awkward and silly, and enjoying things that make other people cringe.’

‘We are there for the absolute awkward pop vibes. I like Florence + the Machine, Jason Derulo, Madonna, Spice Girls. Those ones make me feel really happy. Absolute top of the list is Kylie Minogue.’ – Rewa Murp

ZUMBA GOLD®

Wellingtonian Robyn Cotton has been going to Zumba Gold® for just over six years. When she first started, she did the classes sitting down. Having been involved in a serious car accident 11 years ago, Robyn is living with a brain injury and type 2 diabetes, and has a CRT-D (Cardiac Resynchronisation Therapy with Defibrillator – similar to a pace maker). She credits going out to Zumba classes three times a week (and one online) with not only helping her heart, eye health, and diabetes but also allowing her brain to ‘think straight’.

‘After I had the brain injury and medical things took over, I started a new life in Wellington. The best thing to do was to go the gym and start rewiring my brain because dance does that. When I first started, it took probably a year to learn anything. But now I’m able to get up and dance and remember. I’ve come a long way. It’s changed my life completely.’

Zumba Gold is a lower-intensity version of the typical Zumba class, which was born in the 90s. It is promoted as being designed to meet the anatomical, physiological, and psychological needs of seniors.

‘When I go somewhere now, I find the place. Before, I’d get a mental block of where to go. I had to retrace steps. It took some time. Doing Zumba and activities rewires the brain, but it takes time.’ – Robyn Cotton (pictured right).

Find out more: linedance.nz | ceroc.co.nz | dancescottish.org.nz | shutupanddance.co