You guys ready?

You ready?

I’m Caroline and we're in the dance studio at the Exeter YMCA.

I took ballet and jazz and tap when I was young.

Dancing itself was my thing.

I had another instructor inspire me and encouraged me to start teaching.

And I said, oh, no, I can't do that.

And then I started thinking about it.

And the more I thought about it, I thought, yeah, maybe you can do that.

Now go left.

Caroline is a force of nature.

She is so energetic.

She's always positive.

She has great choreography.

Her music is wonderful.

She's a lot of fun.

I think one of the reasons that I go to this Zumba class is because it's a very vibrant and strong community of people, and I kind of rely on just the social engagement as well as the physical.

It's the movement.

It's the music, it's the people.

It's the energy.

She makes you feel welcome, you know?

And she makes everyone.

She makes a point of saying hello to people.

And if she sees somebody that she's never seen before, as she goes over and talks to them personally and really makes you feel like a part of the group.

So I spoke to someone yesterday who said, you know, I'm really uncoordinated and I'm, I'm too old.

And I said, you know, it's okay.

A lot of people feel that way.

I said, give it three good tries.

Come to three classes and just see, you know, see how you feel after that.

If you if you like it, great.

If you don't, maybe you want to try something else.

You know, I think just moving in any way that works for you, it doesn't have to be like, oh, I'm the best dancer or I get the step, or I can do this class.

You know, if you just try it.

I mean, the big achievement, I think, is to get somewhere and to attempt something and to challenge yourself.

It's not about getting everything right.

It's more about the feeling of the class.

And what I found is people really just want to feel good.

People want to move.

It doesn't matter what age you are, but we're all kind of just in this together and and the between the music and, you know, maybe my silliness.

Other people, you know, you know, woofing or hollering gets people excited and it just sort of becomes this like hour of playtime.

It's a feeling of mutual love and respect and being together in a place where you can just really be yourself.

Yeah, the fun that people have.

I can see it.

And that's a pretty big reward for me