“Everybody is a dancer. Everyone can dance.” This is what Elizabeth Wartluft said to me in a recent conversation.
Elizabeth is my yoga and tango instructor, and she has dedicated the last forty years to teaching the art of movement, mostly in dance. While she admitted to me that she doubts her own creativity as an artist (even she has an inner saboteur), she certainly sees it in others. She brings it out of all her students. So when she says that everyone can dance, she means it.
A lot of people doubt that. They come to Elizabeth and say, “I would like to be a Dancer, but…” This idea that dancing is something foreign, something that other people can do perfectly but we can’t, stops too many of us from trying. Elizabeth says we don’t have to be capital “D” dancers who perform on stage for other people’s enjoyment. We can be small “d” dancers who dance socially for our own pleasure. We can sign up for classes, let ourselves not be perfect, and get out there on the dance floor.
What I love about Elizabeth as a teacher is her ability to help students find the dancer that’s already there, deep inside them. Bringing that out is no easy task, especially since no one is the same. We have different body types, different awareness of how our bodies move in space, different learning styles, and different life experiences that impact how we respond to intimacy on the dance floor. Elizabeth understands all of that. She has extensive knowledge of the human body and how it works. She has years of experience teaching different people, even those who are neurodivergent or suffer from anxiety. And she adapts her teaching in the moment to best suit each student. It’s her superpower really.
And the beauty of dance—it lets us live in the moment, connect with others, and experience music on a visceral level. When all that happens, stress melts away.