Teachers line dance their way to the top

Ingrid Chan, Staff Writer

Advising the senior class during through its final year of high school isn’t the only thing Shari De Cambra, Stacy Tenace, and Mary Gaxiola do as a group.  

The three senior advisors have always been close and frequently take part in a variety of different activities with each other.  Recently, line dancing has surfaced as just one of their many common interests.

Line dancing has continued to remain popular and is normally danced to with Country and Western music, but can also incorporate other forms of music.  

Line dancing involves people lining up in rows and following a choreographed pattern in synchronicity.  

De Cambra was the first to notice the line dancing lessons and instantly took considerable interest in it.

“I was walking, saw the class, and thought that it looked like fun.  So I signed up and told Mrs. Tenace about it.  We then informed Mrs. Gaxiola about it and now all three of us line dance together,” De Cambra said.

Every Thursday the three teachers have weekly line dancing lessons at the Chino Hills Community Center.  

All three teachers have prior experience with dancing.  Gaxiola and Tenace did both swing and line dancing in college, while De Cambra dabbled in a variety of dances including swing, line, and ballet.

“For me, it’s a good, fun way to get in a little bit of exercise,” Gaxiola said. “Even when I was in college, one of the biggest reasons why I enjoyed dancing was precisely because it was a way to get out there on the dance floor without feeling too pressured or intimidated by other people, especially since everyone is doing the same thing at the same time.”

The senior advisors are not planning on stopping their lessons any time soon and intend to keep taking line dancing classes together further into the future.

“The class just teaches different line dances.  Every week we learn two to three new ones and then practice the old ones.  It is a beginning line dancing class but most of the people in it are not beginners,” De Cambra said.