@story MARLA CANTRELL
On the second floor of an old brick building on Van Buren’s Main Street, dance instructor Marcus Coker is living a life very different from the one he planned. “I was a communications major. How vanilla is that? All I knew was that I wanted to travel. ..But I think I ended up here because I kept running into people who said, ‘Why don’t you try this?’ and I listened.
It began when he joined a group of friends taking swing dance lessons. “They all quit, but my sister and I stayed for two years. When the instructor moved away she asked me to take over her classes at Mercy Fitness (in Fort Smith). “
And so he did, but he also worked for a photographer, who just happens to be his current landlord. “Jody (of Memories by Jody) kept asking me why I didn’t open a dance studio on the floor above him. He’d say, ‘Why don’t you try it? Why don’t you try it? Part of the reason I opened Momentum Dance Studio was to shut him up.”
That was five years ago. In the time since, the twenty-nine-year-old has taught hundreds of dancers. “We do a lot of private lessons for engaged couples who want to dance at their weddings. We teach group lessons, ballroom, and two-step, and East Coast, West Coast, and Lindy Hop swing.”
It’s swing dancing he particularly loves. “I think people have this image of swing, that it’s really fast, that there are people flying through the air. That’s not the case. You can dance it slow, you can dance it fast. It’s uniquely American. It started in the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem in the ‘30s. Frankie Manning is known for the Lindy Hop, and he was in several movies. In the ‘80s some people looked him up. He’d been a postman, but he got back in it. He was still traveling and teaching and dancing when he died last year.”
At his studio at 615 A Main Street in Van Buren, Marcus teaches a woman who’s sixty. “She’s a poster child for excuses not to dance. She’s had two knee surgeries, she comes alone, she’s older than most of the class. But she’s lost forty pounds and she’s loving it.”
That’s his biggest challenge. People come up with reasons not to dance. “They’ll say they have two left feet, or they’re klutzes. And those are the people who actually pick up the phone and call. It can be intimidating, so I think if you just come to a class you’ve already done something amazing.”
It all boils down to fear of failure, or of massive embarrassment. “ There’s this guy in Denver and he’s older and yeah, he’s a little different. But on the dance floor he’ll go ask any girl to dance. And at some point he’ll step back and start to clap and yell, ‘Go, go, go.’ And it’s the funniest thing because he doesn’t give a damn about what anybody thinks. I’ve hesitated in situations, thinking I’m not as good as someone else. I’ve sat out dances because I was afraid to ask.” Marcus stopped, rubbed his chin, and then asked. “So who’s the real winner here?”
Most of us lose that abandon as we grow up. “I worked for a wedding photographer. Those kids jump out there on the dance floor. Sometimes they don’t even need music. Adults dance after they’ve been drinking. Kids dance just because. It’s a gift not to care, just to let go.”
That’s what he tries to give back at Momentum Dance Concepts. When it works it’s beautiful. Sometimes he sits out a dance, watching the students lost in the moment. “It can be spiritual, it’s such a natural thing, but it only happens when you forget about yourself and you become part of something bigger.”
Not the easiest thing. Especially for couples. “One night there was this couple. She’d been dancing a long time and he was just learning, and it didn’t come natural to him. So she was frustrated. He said, ‘I’m so focused on my feet, I need you to lead.’ And she said right back at him, ‘I’ve been leading for forty freaking years.’
Marcus believes what happened that night is a result of the thing dance does best. It exposes people. While it may not seem like it, he thinks it’s wonderful. Once you get past the frustration, your true self comes through. And believe it or not, your true self knows how to twist and twirl with the best of them. His advice to you? Why don’t you just try it.
*Marcus is hosting the second annual Southern Fried Swing event on September 24 through September 26, 2010. Four instructors from across the nation will be on hand to teach workshops and attend nightly dances. Renowned Jazz singer Barbara Morrison will perform on Saturday night.
There will also be dance contests. Solo sessions are available if you book early. The cost of the entire weekend is $109. You can also attend individual workshops for a lesser fee. The find out more log on to www.itsaboutmomentum.com.
