Dance Walk! It's a Thing.

(How fitting is it that my first blog post involves dancing?)

Today Julien and I packed the stroller, some snacks and water and headed down to the Town Lake area to meet up with a fitness club called Dance Walk! Austin. Founded by my friend Sarah and another dance walker, Meaghan, this group finds a different route to dance walk each time, aiming for three Saturday mornings per month, though the recent rains have dropped buckets on their parade. We chose a special one to attend - it was Dance Walk's 3 year anniversary and 50th dance walk!

So, how does one dance walk? Well, it's pretty much what it sounds like. You dance while you walk. There is a speaker that the club leaders take turns rolling on a small dolly. Sarah creates a specific playlist the night before each meet up, limiting songs to about a minute or so each. She says that they learned early on that the dancers tire of a song after about halfway through, so this works well in keeping the energy pumping.

We met up at One Texas Center off Barton Springs Road and high stepped our way out of the parking lot to a Michael Jackson tune. I didn't really know what to expect at first, so I just pushed the stroller and added some sass to my walk. (Stroller struttin'? Is that a thing?!) Sarah led the way for the most part, and let me tell you, the girl can move. She was busting out with spins, shimmies and some moves I haven't seen since taking jazz class in the 90's. She was definitely the leader of the pack. Her confidence & fun spirit spread throughout the group as we all found ways to boogie down the trail along Riverside Drive. There were a couple times when I nonchalantly acted as if I didn't see the smart phones aimed at us. No, no... you must know the presence of the cameras only made us crank it up. There's a performer in all of us.

Though Julien calmly sat in his stroller for the first half hour, he got into the dance walk spirit the minute we arrived at the fountains in Butler Park. I quickly unsnapped him from the stroller and the moment his right toe touched the ground, he was off, running happily through the crowds of children and parents gathered there to splash and play. It's amazing what the laughter of your child, of any child really, will do for your heart. We stayed a bit longer than I think the other dance walkers wanted to since he was having so much fun. I will definitely be taking him back there a couple times a week during the summer. It's a great spot to have a picnic, cool off from the Texas heat, and maybe even take an afternoon nap under one of the surrounding trees.

By the time we left the fountains, everyone had cooled off, and we just chat danced during our short walk back to our cars, smiles on our faces and a little more sun kissed than when we had started. I will definitely do this again.

To find out when and where the next dance walk will take place, check them out here: Dance Walk on Facebook.

Disclaimer: The original dance walker is a New York City resident. Meaghan posted the video below to her Facebook timeline, and when Sarah saw it , she told her "We have to do this." Meaghan initially said, "No. No, we don't have to do this." But eventually Sarah's tenacity won out, and Meghan agreed. Thank goodness!

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