Line Dance a-la Gaga

All things Lady Gaga are a bit odd, and the recent Gaga inspired dance workshop at Ninth Street Dance lived up to that reputation. Not sure what to expect but excited about the adventure, GWG and friends met up on a Saturday afternoon to exercise, try something new, and check out this local dance studio. What we found was met with mixed opinions…

The class instructor introduced herself and briefed us on a resume that sounded encouraging, but didn’t mean much to us as beginners. Prepared with index cards for reference, she began to teach the dance steps piece by piece—a routine we believe she choreographed herself. The first several steps came fairly easily but after a short while there was a bit of confusion as she moved to different sides of the room, and at one point it seemed that she was relying on some of the seasoned dancers to remember the moves.

The dance class turned out to be two hours dedicated to one line dance to the song Poker Face by Lady Gaga. Expecting more of a “jump in and go” type class, the GWG and many others seemed frustrated by the combination of varying skill levels and unorganized teaching style. While the 64 count dance was a challenge to memorize, the slow pace of the first hour did not get our heart rates up and would barely count as exercise. The second hour was spent “perfecting” the dance and working up to full speed—several standout dancers were noticeably sweating and out of breath, but for the rest of us it never got very high intensity.

We saw several people leaving throughout the class and given the $20 price tag, we were also a little disappointed in the end result. One of us decided to sit out and observe halfway through—partly to take pictures but mostly out of frustration. The other of us liked the concept but not the execution. Being big fans of most everything Durham we hate to give a bad review, but in this case we have to say this dance class did not convert us into Little Monsters or have us signing up for the next workshop.