When the going gets tough, the tough go dancing. In the teeth of the credit crunch, the craze for dance has exploded — after all, it’s cheap, it’s easy and it’s great fun. Victoria Mary Clarke used to be passionate about dancing and recently she’s taken up the tango with her partner Shane MacGowan [lead singer from the Pogues]. She waxes lyrical about the allure of the dance …
… Danielle Vierling is a California dance teacher who moved to Ireland in 1997. She teaches a holistic, free-form style called Synergy Dance. And she swears by it. Indeed, I have been to her classes and they are extremely uplifting and don’t require you to learn any steps, or wear any special clothes. And Danielle is the same age as me, but outrageously young-looking and very hot. But as Danielle points out, Synergy caters to all body types and all ages.
“You don’t have to be slim and trim in a leotard!” she says.
Danielle took a vow earlier in her life that she would always keep dance in her life. “Always. I started with ballet when I was five and then went on the modern jazz, dabbled in this and that. And there was a period where I stopped dancing, because I was too busy and I just felt so much more stiff and stressed. When you are dancing you feel energised, full of life and happier, but you take it for granted. When you stop you realise something is missing. And so I became a teacher, because that means I have to do it!”
— From “We Gotta Dance,” published Nov. 16, 2008 in the Dublin Independent
