Dance with Sheila

Thanks to for the amazing performance photography 📸

Thanks to .bodies and for the opportunity to perform ✨

Thanks to for the collaboration and partnership, let’s do it again someday soon 💕

Posting this announcement from earlier this week to ensure it reaches folks who aren’t subscribed to our newsletters. https://conta.cc/3RP13ml

12/17/23 CLASS CANCELLATION

Hi it’s your sometimes overly optimistic, other times dreadfully pessimistic, always dramatic dance instructor over here. Unfortunately the course of Hand-Foot-and-Mouth Disease is different for everyone, especially adults, and I had NO IDEA it would take weeks for my hands and feet to return to a condition that would allow for dancing ☹️

I’m looking forward to a healthy start to the New Year for all of us, see you in 2024 friends ✨💃🏻🕺👯🎶

12/10/23 CLASS CANCELLATION

It’s disappointing to have to cancel again due to instructor illness, but unfortunately I experienced a case of Hand-Foot-and-Mouth disease that’s left my hands and feet very tender and raw 🤲👣🤕 Dancing is not in the cards for me today. I expect to be back to 100% for our final Zumba and Bellydance classes of 2023 on Sunday, December 17th.

12/03/23 CLASS CANCELLATION due to instructor illness 🤒🤧😷

(this only leaves two more Sunday evening classes before we break for the New Year)

Thankful for you all and thankful for dance. We don’t typically hold classes over Thanksgiving weekend, but we’re on a roll with our schedule and attendance and I don’t want to mess with our routine.

Thank you for motivating me and each other. Thank you for being a reason to get out of the house and smile. I’m so grateful not to be alone in this pursuit of health and community through dance 🥰

Looking at 10 years of 80s Zumba night feels like flipping through the pages of a high school yearbook. Seeing all the faces of friends we used to dance and smile with. Noticing how different things looked and remembering the feeling of being carefree and silly. Even the memories of social distanced outdoor 80s Night or logging on for virtual 80s Zoomba or the origins of our Halloween tradition back in 2013 when I had classes at the YMCA feel like a lifetime ago…

Sunday, October 29, 2023
5:00pm Zumba Gold 80s Night
✨👩‍🎤🩱👟🧑‍🎤⚡️🎶

Leg warmers, sideways ponytails, and neon colors are encouraged but not required.

I’m so thankful we’re back at it. See you soon my totally tubular friends!

I’m on a fall break so we will not have Zumba Gold or Bellydance Fitness classes tonight. We’ll reconvene on October 22nd with some new music followed on October 29th with 80s Night (more to come on that later ✨⚡️👩‍🎤📼🎶)

Here’s a photo of some kitties for traction. Dance with you soon friends 💕

Reminder: NO CLASSES today September 4th due to the Labor Day holiday weekend. Next time we meet will be for our Back-to-School FREE Class Day! Dance w/ Sheila - Zumba Gold and FREE Class Day! Dance w/ Sheila - Bellydance Fitness on Sunday, September 10th.

The air is turning crisp and cool, kids have started the school year, students are back on campus, and pumpkin spice everything is just around the corner 🍂🍁🎒📝🚌 Let's celebrate Fall with Back-to-School FREE classes on Sunday, September 10, 2023.

5:00pm Zumba Gold
6:00pm Bellydance Fitness
The Phoenix Center
220 S. Main Street, Ann Arbor

Just like the excitement of that first day of class, I'm going to look forward to seeing some of my friends again after much too long of a break!

This is me. The challenges and losses that I’ve endured these past few years have forced me to evolve into a new version of myself which has me feeling unrecognizable. I’m older and less carefree than my youthful self once was. I miss the fearlessness and energy of that gal but I’m grateful for the wisdom, clarity, calmness, and safety that I now embody for myself. My physical strength has greatly diminished but my mental strength is picking up the slack.

Some of you may not know that I was forced to take a medical leave of absence while battling major health issues this past spring. Since my hospitalization in March, I have been diagnosed with an anti-inflammatory condition called Adult Onset Still's Disease and continue to work with the Rheumatology team at Michigan Medicine regarding my treatment, recovery, and the long-term management of this condition. The biggest complication I’ll face in time is joint destruction.

The introduction of Zumba Gold to my dance repertoire will allow me to keep dancing with my arthritic state and will provide a safe and healthy form of movement to preserve my joint health. We’ll see a reduction in intensity of our choreography along with the omission of jumping, twisting, and high-impact moves which could negatively affect our joints. Classes beginning August 6th will feature modified versions of our favorite numbers from over the years as an introduction to this new format of Zumba fitness for us all.

T-minus 3 days till we dance again, hope to see you soon my friends 💕