All posts in: Persian Rugs

07 Aug 2016

Monday Night Workshop

You guys, I finally did that thing that I’ve been putting off since January. A couple of weeks ago, Jessie and I finally committed to going to Monday Night Workshop – a 2 hour hip hop class in San Jose from 9:30-11:30 PM. For years, since I moved here, I started researching which places I should go to and what class might be a good fit for me. I’ve been following Monday Night Workshop on Instagram for awhile and was pretty sure that I had found the one. Lucky for me, Jessie, my co-worker had also heard about it too and had been interested in trying it out. So back in March, we put it on the calendar. But for whatever reason, kept putting it off – things kept coming up, we had to work late that night, we were lazy, it was a Monday, the excuses were never ending.

Growing up, I always wanted to take hip hop classes. It wasn’t feasible for me as a kid and when I got to college, I started going to my university’s gym where classes were being taught, but similar to now – it was hard for me to remain committed. I just wanted to get really good, but how can you be good if you stop showing up? Monday Night Workshop is late and Mondays are our busiest days so I knew it was going to be a struggle! I had nerves the morning of class and because of this – savaged my body with an Egg McMuffin and hashbrowns that morning to calm myself. I wanted to take this class for a few reasons:

  1. I wanted to get good. I wanted to continue going and work my way up towards becoming better
  2. This was the hobby that I always wanted and it wasn’t too late for me to take it on. I thought it would be both fun and relaxing
  3. Dancing isn’t easy; you need to focus and you have to pay attention to the details (things that push me every day in my work) and I wanted that challenge

So this class is no joke. Everyone here is as good as a Jabbawockee and while everyone was a 9-10, I felt like I was a 4. I probably only got every 3rd or 4th step which made me insecure at first, but then I quickly recognized that it’s not like everyone comes out of the womb being a good dancer. It took work and I’ve been out of it for years so while I can pick up some things, I shouldn’t have expected that I could go to one class after a long time and be as good as everyone else. The choreography, the song, the instructor – all met my expectations. It was exactly what I had wanted, but 9:30 PM for a start time is rough after a long working day. Everyone was so talented though and I think that’s something I enjoyed watching. This kind of dance is beautiful and mesmerizing to me. Would I go back? Probably, but I’m still a little bit shy to be doing this in front of everyone else so I think if I can make the time for it, I’d like to set up just a couple of private lessons before heading back. I’m glad we finally took the plunge!

If you’re interested in seeing the piece we learned – here is a video of our instructor Deziree doing the choreography to it at the end of class. She’s amazing. The song is PARTYNEXTDOOR – Persian Rugs.