Can you really become an elite level dancer as an adult?
By now you all will know that I am a doula as well as a dancer, but most of you will not know that I used to own a dance studio that was strictly for adults! That is another story for another time, but when I had the business I often got asked why I chose to focus my demographic to adults - a market that wasn't nearly as profitable as a studio for children and teens. My answer was simple: I wanted something that I never had when I first moved out to Alberta. It's true, I started dance as a child and took as many classes as my small little northern Manitoba town would allow, but once I hit that milestone age of 18 and moved to "the big city", it felt like my options were limited to making it BIG or finding another hobby. I saw this as a real disappointment - I LOVE to dance in my youth of course, but also I very much hoped to continue my training into my adult years. I recognized that the dance world is set-up to train young athletes but what about us mature folk? I suppose most studio owners thought there wasn't much point, that adults don't want to dance or maybe they even thought adult dancers were a waste because we would never get far starting so late. This could not be further from the truth, and I'm gonna school you all on why dancing as an adult can absolutely pay off in huge ways, including obtaining professional work!
The body and the brain are very different in adolescence and adulthood
I have heard from many friends in my adult years who say "I wish I could do what you do, but I'm old and my body doesn't move like that anymore". While this is not entirely untrue (of course our muscles, bones, joints, ligaments, etc. have and will deteriorate over time), it's also not entirely true either. See something most people don't account for is the brain growth that takes place during maturity and what impact this has on dance training. As a child, my dance teacher used big terminology and very mature concepts to teach me about dance technique and let me tell ya... most of the time I hadn't the hottest CLUE what she was trying to tell me. This is because I had a serious lack of awareness of human biology and physiology and an immature brain that could not process the information needed to compose a reasonable training regime necessary to see improvement. I mean what 13 year old knows what adductors are? Or that to become more flexible, passive stretching alone won't work? So while yes it may be hard for you as an adult to move your body in the ways you did as a child, your brain is your best friend. You can learn more about the body during movement than ever and retain enough of that information to hack your way to better dance skill. Plus, you can often troubleshoot discomforts for injury prevention - something that less mature brains often can't do!
Focus, determination and persistence, oh my!
Maybe this is my ADHD tendencies but as a kid I wanted to try everything and anything extracurricular and didn't stick to one single thing for too long. Dance was by far my favourite but I also played school sports, took piano and music lessons, gymnastics, figure skating, you name it. And because of this, I lacked persistence and focus in the one thing that I loved the most... but guess what I continued to pursue out of grade school? It definitely wasn't piano or figure skating. Once I became an adult and got to choose my own schedule and determine what I wanted to focus on, I poured most of my time into dance. And guess what? I saw more improvement in that first year than I had ever seen before! As adults, we've got lives outside of our hobbies - work, spouses, kids, travel. We know that in order to make the things that we love work we need to be dedicated to them. We need focus and persistence, and the level of both of those required is, in my opinion, extremely hard to achieve as a child. Not to mention that when you have to foot the bill for the things you love, you understand that you need to improve and progress or it sure isn't work the money you're pouring into it.
Community is a basic essential for every human
Now I know that community building is a perk of dance classes no matter what your age is. However as an adult you can probably recognize how fast people come in and out of your life and often times this is due to growing apart in your interests. When it comes to dance, the journey of learning and growing as a dancer in adulthood feels a lot more rewarding when you've got like-minded, similar-levelled pals to walk it with you. In a dance class you may start off hardly talking to anyone in your class but if you stick with it, eventually those barriers will fall and you'll feel comfortable being so vulnerable around others. This is the base for a beautiful friendship! Eventually you will feel just as excited for their accomplishments as you do for your own, because you've witnessed them come up from the same place you have. I started pole dancing as an adult and originally trained alone in my basement, but once I started going to classes I made friendships that I cherish deeply. These relationships not only make me feel like I truly belong in a group, but also these people inspire the crap out of me and push me to be the best dancer I can possibly be. Theres not a lot of other activities that I have done as an adult that have built bonds quite like these!
So if you're considering taking a beginner dance class as an adult but are hesitant, here's your sign - take the plunge! No matter how old, young, big, small, extroverted or introverted you are, you CAN be a dancer. Dance is for everyone.
