Dec 12, 2007 9:47 am US/Central
Dance Lessons For You And Your Baby
(WCCO)
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The classes last 45 minutes, take place once a week, and provide both exercise and a special bonding experience for the kids and their parents.
CBS
If you have run out of ways to keep
your young kids busy, consider taking dance lessons together. Babies, toddlers
and preschoolers can take ballroom dancing classes with their parents at a
unique Twin Cities studio.
I just spent some time there and it is as cute as it sounds ... moms, dads and
even grandmothers doing the tango and rumba with the special little person in
their lives. The kids are as young as newborns
and as old as 6-years-old.
It all happens at a place in St. Paul called Baby
Ballroom. Dance
instructor Meghan Gordon started teaching the parent and child classes 3-and-a-half
years ago after dancing competitively herself and teaching adults only.
The classes
last 45 minutes, take place once a week, and provide both exercise and a
special bonding experience for the kids and their parents.
Meghan, the instructor and founder,
told me how she got the idea.
"I was dancing in the middle of
the night with my son, who was just a few months old, couldn't get him to go
back to sleep. I started singing you are my sunshine which is a rumba, started
dancing with him in the middle of the night and he just konked right out. And I
thought this is a good idea, I should teach other parents how to dance with
their babies," she said.
"Just exposing them to the
world of dance and how you move your body to music, you can start exposing them
to that when they are just teeny … even in utero, so they start early
identifying a beat and moving their bodies to music. It is then a lot easier
down the road for them," she added.
Meghan said the classes are a great
way for moms and dads to get some special one-on-one time with their children.
"I think the great thing about
baby ballroom is the bonding between parent and grandparent and the baby. Just
being held by your mom and being danced around the floor is a huge benefit even
if it is just for the sake of being held. It is a wonderful thing to do that to
music," she said.
You can buy gift certificates for baby
ballroom classes. Meghan said it's become a popular choice among family
members.
"A lot of the grandparents buy
the gift certificate for mom and then decide ... to take the class themselves ...
thinking, hey, I am going to give you a break. So it is a nice gift to be able
to be able to dance with your grandchild and give your child some rest time,"
said Meghan.
I talked to several of the mothers
taking the class on the day I visited.
Chris Schwebel said, "We enjoy
the running around, getting energy and I enjoy watching the budding movements
of her arms, and she is learning to pay attention and listen and follow
directions."
Kathy Ledo has two young sons in the
class.
"It is so wonderful and so fun.
We started with John when he was just six months old and he has been learning
rhythm and singing and singing songs at home and he has a wonderful time. Joe, he is just five months -- just starting his
rhythm lessons," said Ledo.
Ellen Berkelhamer told me "We
started when Emma was about six months and now she is 2-and-a-half and we came
to meet other moms and kids and to get a bit of exercise. We have stayed for
two years because it is a lot of fun."
"From a learning standpoint
they learn how to keep time and they learn the basic steps and from a parent's
stand point they run around for an hour and wear themselves out which is not a
small thing," said Beth Irish, another mother in the class.
The Baby Ballroom classes are taught
at the Cinema Ballroom on St.
Clair Ave, near the intersection of Snelling, in St. Paul. Meghan also teaches them at the Edina community center
through the community education program.
Registration is open now for classes
that start in January or February and run six weeks. The cost is $60 to $90
depending on whether you bring one or two kids or one or two parents.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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