I started a dance class yesterday. It's going to be once a week for five weeks and is run through UCLA's rec center. I've never taken a dance class before. There are only five people in the class, including me, and the instructor was 15 minutes late. It was just a sub this week -- a small woman, probably younger than me, who announced to everyone that she was on the autism spectrum. (I keep getting distracted when I write.) A guy in the class started talking about how he had autism. It felt like a general HIPPA violation, but I guess it can't be if you're just talking about yourself.
The dancing itself was harder than I expected. It wasn't super taxing athletically, but the choreography was a lot to remember. It was also difficult to control my body in that particular way. The balance and precision of it. But it was fun and felt kind of emotional -- maybe it was all the personal diagnoses talk from the beginning, -- something about moving my body in that particular way, to that particular music, working through emotions like they were in my circulatory system.
The instructor broke us into two groups and had one group perform the dance while the other watched. The audience group was then told to give a compliment to the other performers. One guy, the one who talked about having autism, said, "There's a lot of bravery in this room." And it should have been cheesy -- I mean, it's honestly a bit much -- but it was meant sincerely and felt kind of true.
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