Get your dancing shoes on

‘Dance is for everyone’ is the mantra of local dance teacher Caery Barrett – something she is passionate about after she leapt over several barriers put in front of her own desire to dance.

She says as she was growing up in South Africa, dance teachers told her she was too flat footed, too big boned and, later, too big busted to do ballet.

At the age of 13 she was diagnosed with a form of spina bifida and was advised by doctors not to dance because of the danger of paralysis.

“I got depressed when I couldn’t dance and my parents decided my mental health was more important,” Caery says. “Times have moved on in medicine and now they tell me dancing is the best thing I could have done for my back.”

Caery danced professionally and trained to become a teacher. She married a Kiwi and for the past four years has been taking classes at Whangaparaoa Hall. Her desire for inclusiveness is found in the range of options that For the Love of Dance offers, from Fairy Fun Classes for preschoolers up to Fifties Plus.

Currently Caery’s Fifties Plus class is down to just two dancers and she is hoping to build it up again. “As people get older they forget about dancing themselves and encourage children or grandchildren, but everyone can dance,” Caery says. “Research shows there are enormous physical and cognitive benefits to dancing as an older person – because you have to coordinate movements with balance and spatial awareness. It engages both sides of the brain.”

Info: phone Caery, 021 134 6549 or visit www.fortheloveofdance.co.nz