As a classically trained dancer in the 70s, Consuela experienced first-hand the youthful effects of moving her body. She took her artful expertise and crafted an aerobic workout that helps people of all ages feel young and agile.
Consuela's Story
"I've always felt that dance is something we are all entitled to."
It was the late 70s. Picture leg warmers, headbands and the hottest new trend-aerobic dance. I had been dancing all my life and had recently taken a job teaching aerobic dance part-time to support my more serious aspirations of performance and choreography.
At first, I looked at the class as a part-time job you do on the side of what you really love, much like waitressing. But the more I did it, the more I saw that there was something amazing happening in these classes. It was this shared experience, bringing joy in people and bringing people together in a mutual ritual. We would teach on Sundays, and a lot of students would even tell me that this was their church. It became more and more central to me.
"We opened a window through which people could enter."
A year into teaching these classes, I decided to start my own company, Rhythm and Motion. One of the complaints I'd had from the director of my aerobic dance program was that I taught too much like a dancer. I decided that at Rhythm and Motion I was going to teach a lot like a dancer. I was going to focus on dance and employ other dancers, dancers who had worked hard and could reap the benefits of this phenomenon.
The vast majority of the students and teachers were women. A lot of women have the feeling that dance is for those people who are skinny or coordinated. A lot of people don't feel empowered or don't feel that they're deserving of participating. I think what we were doing was giving people permission to dance, a kind of window of possibility for people. We didn't tell people to come to a dance class, which may have intimidated them. We called it a dance workout class, and then they'd find themselves exercising and dancing in the process. We, women of all ages, walks of life and body types, were all sweating together, letting go of our inhibitions and developing our own individualized grace in the process.
"When you move your body and feel confident physically, it permeates your whole life."
You come to a class feeling down, feeling up, feeling normal, whatever way you're feeling. I guarantee, 100 percent, you will walk out feeling better. It's magical what's happening to our bodies and also to our minds when we're working in class. Part of it is a mental stimulation of getting the material. Part of it is the physical freedom to move without a purpose. We spend so much of our lives moving with intentions. We're getting up, and we're going to work, and we're going home. It's all kind of segmented. But dance is a segment that's wide open, where there's no other purpose than to be there, enjoying your body and the choreography. After class, there's a wonderful high that stays with you.
"Dancing is a healthy addiction."
The health benefits are enormous. Dancing keeps you young. It's wonderful for your heart, it's wonderful for your lungs, and it's wonderful for all the different sets of muscles in your body. When you're feeling healthy, there's nothing like it. It's like you're at peace with the world when you're feeling healthy. It's a very liberating feeling.
"Rhythm and Motion became a much bigger thing than me, than all of us."
It was so much about the group energy and the community of it that I quickly saw that this was bigger than anything I had ever experienced in dance. I think the permission giving is what enabled people to open up. We would say, "This is about you, this is about your experience. This is not about what people think of you, and no one's looking at you." That gave them a fearlessness that they'd not felt since childhood.
