{"id":7190,"date":"2019-02-25T06:00:27","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T06:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/?p=5780"},"modified":"2020-07-09T16:26:22","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T20:26:22","slug":"in-love-with-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/blog\/dance-lessons\/in-love-with-dance\/","title":{"rendered":"In Love With Dance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shari Finsilver believes bucket lists are for checking off \u2013 not just waiting for someday to arrive.<\/p>\n

Wanting to dance – Fred Astaire Dance Student shares her story<\/h3>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to just pursue whatever you\u2019re passionate about,\u201d <\/em>says the Orchard Lake mother of two and grandmother of five. \u201cTruly, you never know what tomorrow brings. You\u2019ve just got to go for it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

Which is the attitude that propelled her into our studio last summer with a simple goal of wanting to dance.<\/p>\n

Always passionate about dance and music, she kept a list in her mind of the things she wanted to do some day. Dance was at the top of that list. One year she dabbled in ballet lessons and another year she tried jazz.<\/p>\n

Looking back, she says, \u201cI never really had the time to pursue it. Then I got upset with myself because I had a list of a few things I wanted to do and I didn\u2019t make the time. I said to myself, \u2018For God\u2019s sake, you could be dead tomorrow and regret the things you haven\u2019t done. So I got in the car and went over to Fred Astaire Dance Studio and enrolled.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was that easy. She signed up in July of 2018 and fell in love. She dances four days a week, two hours at a time, and fervently focused on simply learning to dance and enjoying the process. But she told us from the start that all she wanted to do was dance \u2013 no competition, no performances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018I just love to dance. I want to learn everything I can about it, but I am not competing.\u2019 I was emphatic,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Until recently.<\/p>\n

\"Co-National<\/p>\n

In January, Shari trekked to San Diego to compete in the Fred Astaire West Coast Dance Championships, inspired by the Tony Dovolani special coaching event in December in Michigan, and our in-studio match competition, in which she participated. (Watch Tony Dovolani speak about the Fred Astaire Boot Camp on TV-20<\/a>!)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like a competition but we weren\u2019t competing against each other,\u201d she explains. \u201cI really had a ball. It was fun.\u201d Then Tony encouraged her to consider San Diego, and she said alright.<\/p>\n

First Time Competing<\/h3>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

The first night in San Diego, Shari danced until past midnight, and then rolled out of bed at 6 a.m. the next day to start on her hair and makeup. The competition was \u201creally fun,\u201d she says, and exhausting!!<\/p>\n

Shari did 10 dances across 148 heats over three days, claiming first place in almost all the heats. \u201cIt was fabulous,\u201d she says, adding that she ended up winning the Top Newcomer award<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shari danced with her instructor-partner, Tamerlan Gadirov<\/a>, competing in waltz, tango, fox trot, cha cha, rumba and swing. She also competed in salsa, hustle, merengue and mambo.<\/p>\n

While she relied on a tape to help her relax and visualize success before the competition, she says the most important thing is to \u201cjust have fun. Really, just enjoy yourself and have fun, and it will be what it will be. That\u2019s the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A small group of our students went to San Diego in January. Every month we send students to a competition<\/a> somewhere, which means FADS students are constantly preparing to perform.<\/p>\n

What It\u2019s Like to be a New FADS Student<\/h3>\n

\u201cFrom the first moment I walked into that studio, I found that the people I met are the nicest, nicest people\u201d Shari says. \u201cThis atmosphere is so welcoming, so encouraging, so friendly. I had taken some dance lessons at another studio quite a few years ago – I did an introductory thing with my husband and then went back and danced by myself, but I didn\u2019t like it. It was just so cold. Here, everyone is warm, welcoming, friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the staff and the people at the front desk, Shari says. The instructors, the students are all \u201cvery, very friendly. I kept meeting people, from day one. They\u2019re so encouraging. It made it comfortable from the moment I walked in that door.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shari admits, she didn\u2019t know what to expect when she first came in. \u201cThis is the warmest, friendliest, most welcoming and encouraging place I\u2019ve been to,\u201d she gushes.<\/p>\n

She began with a weekly lesson, then moved up to two. All students who take private lessons with us<\/a> are welcome to attend daily group dance lessons and weekly dance parties, but Shari is busy most evenings with her husband and family. So she ramped up the number of private lessons; now she\u2019s at four days every week, two hours at a time.<\/p>\n

The Friendliest Place in the World<\/h3>\n

A retired industrial engineer and self-described professional volunteer who has been married for 47 years, Shari says, \u201cFred Astaire Dance Studio is a great place if you\u2019re interested in ballroom dancing because of the kind of environment that it is. It is just so friendly, so welcoming, it makes you feel so comfortable, and it\u2019s really easy – they\u2019re phenomenal teachers, really phenomenal teachers, and I think they can teach anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen people at all levels during this in-studio competition in December, and what\u2019s amazing is you feel so incredible about yourself when you\u2019re out there. I don\u2019t care what other people think when they\u2019re looking at me; you feel so incredible that it\u2019s really worth pursuing and trying.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019d Never Know\u2026<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One more thing that makes Shari so proud of her dance accomplishments, and encouraging of others to give ballroom dance a try, is that she has endured a neurological condition called essential tremor<\/a> (ET) since the age of 11. The condition causes involuntary shaking, which can occur in the hands, arms, head, voice, trunk, or legs. It can range from mildly embarrassing for patients to disabling, Shari says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was fortunate to have deep-brain stimulation surgery (DBS) in 1999, which helps control the tremors, but does not cure it,\u201d she says. \u201cOne of the things that most ET patients never do is perform in public because adrenaline kicks the tremors into high gear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tremor usually increases with age, Shari says. Plus, while the DBS treatment was effective, the body gets used to the brain implant, thus causing a decrease in tremor control over the years, she attests.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I don\u2019t hold my body, hands, or arms quite normally, the way most people do. My right hand was shaking every so often during competition, but there isn\u2019t much I can do about that,\u201d she says. \u201cNo one ever guesses I have ET \u2026 even medical professionals when they meet me.\u201d<\/p>\n

That proves it \u2013 anyone can \u2013 and should! \u2013 dance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shari Finsilver believes bucket lists are for checking off \u2013 not just waiting for someday to arrive. Wanting to dance – Fred Astaire Dance Student shares her story \u201cIt\u2019s important to just pursue whatever you\u2019re passionate about,\u201d says the Orchard Lake mother of two and grandmother of five. \u201cTruly, you never know what tomorrow brings. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,19,24],"tags":[56,47,57,193,38,194,195,196,50,70,197,198],"class_list":["post-7190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dance-competitions","category-dance-lessons","category-nutrition-health","tag-competitive-dance","tag-dance-competition","tag-dance-lessons","tag-essential-tumor-et","tag-fred-astaire-dance-studio","tag-love-to-dance","tag-private-dance-lessons","tag-rumba","tag-swing","tag-tony-dovolani","tag-waltz","tag-west-coast-dance-championships"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}