Photo by Kamp Fender.
Jackie Tally, center, leads a Confi-Dance class at the Homewood Community Center. Tally calls the class “a door to wellness” in that it serves as a stimulus for the women to find more opportunities to get active.
Jackie Tally has been dancing since high school, but she understands it’s not something that comes naturally to most people.
Since 1983, she has worked with the Homewood Community Center, utilizing her degree in physical education from the University of Montevallo to teach various fitness and dance classes. Tally herself has extensive knowledge of different dances, including line, ballroom and creative movement.
Having started by simply teaching line dancing, her most recent course serves as an introduction to the world of dance as a whole, aptly called “Confi-Dance.”
“What I try to do is slow it down and take it right from the beginning,” Tally said. “At the end of each class, I try to make them feel really good and ensure that they had a successful experience.”
The class takes place over the course of five weeks in the event room of the Homewood Community Center and is exclusively for women. Working in a small group setting, Tally ensures her students that she can teach them the secrets of feeling and looking good while dancing as well as learning to enjoy it as a physical activity.
What Tally has found, she said, is that many of her students see the class as a way to be more active and burn calories, but they genuinely come to learn because they had a bad experience with dancing in the past, feel awkward or unattractive while dancing or just don’t have the skills.
“This class is specifically for people who have never danced before, and it’s designed to be a small group and help them feel confident,” Tally said.
She says the small group setting of the class makes it feel like a “dancing support group” for the women in the class, who are typically retired and looking for an activity or new skill. They become friends, help each other with learning moves and share additional resources with one another to help them in the class.
Tally calls the class “a door to wellness” in that it serves as a stimulus for the women to find more opportunities to get active. Some students move on to other dance classes and workshops, go to line dance socials or even start a regular walking routine, counting steps and watching what they eat.
By the end of the class, she said, the participants are more confident in their bodies and being active in public.
The Confi-Dance course starts with an introductory class, where interested students can come in, and get an overall feel for the class what’s expected and learn a dance. In the classes that follow, Tally goes over basic dance vocabulary, various line dances and techniques for posture. She starts all the classes with a few minutes of creative movement to get loosened up and moving.
The cost for the course is $75 for all five classes, with a reduced charge for her returning students. Upon joining the class, they will receive access to a closed Facebook group where they will be able to view video summaries and various virtual and local dance resources. With every class, students will get a step sheet that details the dance taught that day.
For more information about the Confi-Dance course and registering, email Jackie Tally at smartmovesdance7@gmail.com.
