You can shoot a 3 pointer like a pro, or you can even shoot it AS the pro. You can drive a car at the tender age of …. well, whenever you can manipulate the controller. You can go to battle and get assassinated, several times over and still live to play another day. There are video games for everything. I was pondering the other day, am I being replaced by a video game?
Let me tell you what triggered this thought. An on again, off again student joined my virtual class again two weeks ago and I was thrilled to see her. After class, we spoke briefly and she mentioned that she hoped to be more consistent as she wanted to get her fitness regimen established. She hasn’t joined again since but I learned via social media, because we are friends, that she has discovered the popular dancing game. It is a fun game and you can definitely get a good workout if you go all out. I wondered, “Oh no, have I been replaced by J___ D____?”
The more I thought about it. I am actually like the live action version of the game, but with a ton of benefits!
First, let’s go over the advantages of the game; anyone in the home can dance with it at any time, one time payment, you can pick the song that you want to dance to, and it rewards you with stars! However, it has a huge loophole; with strategic movement of the controller, you can accumulate stars by only moving one arm.
So what added benefits do I bring to the table or rather to the screen? Music selection, though this means my playlist must be pleasing to YOUR ear, it also means that I will bring you a variety of music from around the world that you might otherwise not choose if you were not familiar with the titles. Range of motion, if you are working out with me, you WILL move more than one arm and will learn to move your body in ways that you might not even realized that it could move. I often have students ask me after class how a certain movement is done, I provide the instruction and the next class I can see the difference in their movement. A full body workout, I select choreography that ensures that, if followed, the dancer works every muscle. I don’t flash stars on your screen but I am paying attention and will give you personal verbal recognition for your progress and effort. Cardio, my students with fitness trackers have often told me that my class logs them between 5000 and 6000 steps. One student that had some limitations to her mobility told me that her tracker always logged around 4200-4300 steps per class. So in just about an hour, you can get half of your steps in for the day. Lastly… I Care. That is why I haven’t thus far recorded classes that my students can just replay. I want to be able to cheer you on, caution you if the way you are doing a movement may cause you injury, modify steps for you, sometimes for the entire class, if needed and share information about the song or dance, (e.g., genre, style, history) that will make dancing to it more meaningful for you.
Plus, you always have the option to do as one of my students did. She turned off her video and and I don’t even know how much of the class she did because I thought she was dancing with me when she took this picture! Lol