We all have unforeseen occurrences that seem to put a wrench in our plans: fender benders on the morning commute; a lice outbreak in your kid’s class; jury service on your vacation days. Perhaps the most devastating is bad medical news from your doctor. Learning that you have a health condition forces you to rethink and restructure life as you know it. With doctor appointments, lab tests and medication management on the horizon, how will you cope? Will you fall victim to a diagnosis? Will you march on, refusing to let your illness consume you? What will be your outlet?...

So you’re thinking about trying ballroom dance but you’re not sure if it’s for you. Despite many myths, you don’t need prior dance experience and you don’t have to be in a specific age group. Step into Arthur Murray Royal Oak and you’ll see a wide age range of dancers gliding, twirling and cha-chaing across the floor. Partners may have years between them, but their common ground is a love of movement! In recent years, ballroom has become a cultural phenomenon. The premiere of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” in 2005 helped propel ballroom into the limelight in the U.S....

If you’ve visited Arthur Murray Royal Oak, you’ll see that we’re pretty much a no-fuss studio. Taking classes here doesn’t require a lot of prep in your day. Most students come after work or before school or on a day off between errands. Our flexible hours of operation are a big draw (and something we pride ourselves in, frankly). You don’t need to remember your yoga mat like you might for the gym or your reusable shopping bag for a trip to the grocery store. As student Julie Zenger Hain pointed out in our last blog, you really only need...

One of our favorite aspects of meeting new students is learning what drove them to our studio. Are they here to pick up some moves for a wedding? Did they show up because someone gave them a gift certificate? Is dance a new social outlet that they are exploring? For doctors Julie Zenger Hain and Jon Hain, de-stressing was a factor in joining Arthur Murray Royal Oak two years ago. The couple took on dancing as a way to spend quality time together, be physically active, learn something new and unwind. We spoke with Julie about their takeaways as students,...

The season of giving is upon us, but if you turn a blind eye, it could quickly become the season of eating. While December brings holiday gatherings, gifting and cheer, it also promises decadent desserts and drinks that are hard to pass up. Bite-size treats and a sip of a cocktail might lift your spirits, but a tower of trifle and endless eggnog could send you into a downward spiral.   Have no fear! Whether you’ve had a reprieve from sugar consumption since Thanksgiving, or you’ve been indulging in sweets ever since, your temptation-busting tips are here!   By putting...

Year after year, you had a routine. You went to work, logged in your hours, came home and did it all over again the next day. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Now, you’re retired. Gone are the days of the morning alarm, timecard, project deadlines, social lunches or office parties (annoying as they could be, you still counted on them).   So now what? Most working folks would marvel at your newfound freedom (yearning to have just one afternoon off), yet you feel completely out of sorts. You may even feel a little down. You wanted out of the rat race, yet...

You know those moments in life when you recognize something about yourself? Maybe it’s a new skill, a bad habit or an insecurity that you just haven’t been able to shake as an adult. That insecurity may involve dancing. You want to take a date to that wedding, but feel anxious about the moment when the deejay plays a slow song. You want to use that gift certificate for a dance lesson, but feel intimidated. The common roadblock is FEAR. You can tap your fingers to a song in your car, but the thought of moving your entire body in...

Life with kids Let’s talk, mom to mom. How many hours have we dedicated to rocking our mom-ness? You know what we mean: From cuddling to comforting to carrying tiny tired legs or chauffeuring our gaggles around to an astounding number of activities stationed in the furthest corners of town. We absolutely dominate the table-tennis-inspired sport of managing tiny humans. With our chaotic family schedules, it’s a small miracle we arrive anywhere properly clothed, and a bigger one when the “stoplight gods” grant us a minute to apply mascara and take just one uninterrupted sip of our room-temp coffee without...

If you’re the type of person who has an analytical mind, you know you have to find an outlet for it – a recreational space to grow, strategize, calculate, process, challenge, solve. You can probably think of a number of expected places to find analytical minds at work – like in an office making sense of statistical data, in marketing coming up with a sales strategy or in a courtroom planning your retort to your defendant’s testimony. What you might not expect? Ballroom dancing offers a hotbed of opportunity for the analytical mind to thrive. Jessica of Arthur Murray Royal...

For guys, dance used to be everything – meaning, it used to be the single most direct and necessary route to spending quality time with “the” girl. That band would strike up, and that was his cue to go snag the hand of the girl he’d had his eye on. How did guys know how to move? Well, learning to dance was as integrated into a decent upbringing as learning to have a conversation.   Why? Because in the 40s and 50s, dancing was at the center of any worthwhile social event. Our parents used to create dance floors in...