Just over a year ago, graphic designer Rachel Franco pulled on a pair of roller skates for the first time in more than 30 years.
“I used to roller skate as a kid and for about two years I had this nagging feeling that I’d really like to do it again,” the 42-year-old says.
Rachel Franco has rediscovered her love of roller skating.Credit: Renee Nowytarger
Late last year, after searching online, she came across RollerFit – an adult roller skating class which runs in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane – and gave it a try. She now attends up to three classes a week.
“I just love it … I think the biggest thing I get out of it is that it makes me feel like a kid again,” she says. “It’s hard to explain, but I think as an adult when you’re working full time, life can feel pretty serious, it just takes you to this happier place.”
Ms Franco is among a growing number of Australian men and women, who are taking up activities they enjoyed as kids, such as roller skating, tap dance, ballet and gymnastics, in the latest fitness trend, which participants say is as good for their "mind and soul" as it is for their bodies.
Jane Casson, a Melbourne ballet teacher, who runs City Adult Ballet in North Melbourne, says the majority of her students are women, and a handful of men, who enjoyed ballet as children.
I think as an adult when you’re working full time, life can feel pretty serious, it just takes you to this happier place.
“We teach exclusively to adults and what I love is that a lot of these people haven’t danced for 20 or 30 years. They did it as a child and had a lot of passion for it, but as adults, life gets busy.
"They come along and they rediscover that passion and it’s a really beautiful thing to watch,” says the former Australian Ballet soloist.
“You see that light-bulb moment go off in class, where they’re like ‘Wow, yes, I remember why I loved this so much.' ”
Tap dance teacher Grant Swift, from Rhythm Tap Melbourne, says he loves helping adults rediscover their love of dance.Credit:Joe Armao
Play facilitator and consultant Daniel Teitelbaum from Playful Thinking, who works with organisations and runs workshops about the importance of play in adulthood, says “play is absolutely essential,” no matter what age.
“We should be playing right until the end,” he says. “As human beings our drive to play is at the same level as the drive for sleep, to find shelter, to eat and have sex.”
"It's just that as adults there are lots of obstacles that get in the way of play, including this idea that we need to grow up," he explains.
"There are a many elements of play that are seen as antithetical to what it means to be a responsible adult, like doing things for no reason, a sense of purposeless, even the physical act of playing and the way we move our bodies when we play can feel a bit silly as an adult," he explains.
However, he says the benefits of “purposeless, joyful play” are multi-faceted and can benefit not just our mental and physical health and wellbeing but our social connectedness, relationships and our productivity and proficiency in the workplace.
They come along and they rediscover that passion and it’s a really beautiful thing to watch.
“Play enables us to continue to learn and create and thrive, and if you think about it even in the context of the modern workplace, which can be uncertain and chaotic, playing can help improve our ability to respond to uncertain scenarios, adapt to a new situation, figure out what our next move is, without panicking, because play states allow us a safe environment to cultivate and test those skills," he explains.
Grant Swift from Rhythm Tap Melbourne, who runs four adult tap dancing classes a week, in St Kilda and Kensington, says he’d love to see even more adults revisit the dance forms they enjoyed as children.
“I think humans should always dance… dancing has been a major part of most cultures for centuries… Kids are always dancing but at some point, at some age, many of us seem to stop.”
He says he loves watching his adult students rediscover their love of dance.
“It’s like when you reboot your phone or your computer, everything just works that much better, and you can see it, the things that were bothering them before don’t seem to matter so much anymore.”
Stella Christopoulos, 43, who attends Mr Swift’s tap dance class in Kensington once a week, agrees.
“For me it’s the mental benefits I get from dancing, I feel more confident and I just feel lighter, getting fit is an added bonus,” says the mother-of-two, who returned to tap dancing earlier this year.
"I love dancing. I’ve always loved dancing and when you have a passion for something, it never really goes away."
Source: Read Full Article
