Letter: Newcomer to 5rhythms shares his guy experiences

Every time I tried to take one of the rigid forms with specific moves in a specific sequence, at best I struggled. At worst I left feeling horrible. That's what happened several years ago when I took a Salsa class with a friend. 

When I told the teacher I was struggling to keep up, hoping for some pointers, encouragement or words of motivation, all I got was her saying "Yes, I can see that." and then turning away from me. Well naturally that left me miserable and just wanting to retreat into the old childhood shell that had previously enveloped me.

Even so I continued to seek out dance and only a few months later found a 3 day workshop by Anna Halprin. The first night as we formed our circle I wondered on the heels of my recent horrible experience how this would be any different and how anyone could release the dancer in me. It didn't seem possible and I was incredibly nervous. 

Well a few hours later I had blisters on the bottoms of both feet from dancing so much and over the course of the weekend even ended up doing a solo in front of the whole group. It was a wonderful experience. 

I then found 5 Rhythms through some other folks at that workshop. That was great as well, though a bit far going from my home to Mountain View each week during the evening rush hour.

So I'm writing in hopes of finding a class, group or other venue for this type of dancing expression. If you know of a place anywhere near my home, or have any other ideas, please let me know.  

Name of sender not listed for privacy reasons.

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