Who hasn’t wished for the ability to fly? If you’re still secretly aching to live out your Superman fantasy, or seeking another way to stay in shape that’s more interesting than hoofing it on the treadmill, sign-up for a two-hour introductory trapeze class at the Trapeze Club at the Center for Symbolic Studies in New Paltz. Daring, physically able first-timers can expect to do a swinging knee hang with a flip by the end of the class. Classes contain no more than 10 students with assistance from two to four instructors, and are offered from May through October to everyone age 4 and up. “We just had a 79-year-old woman do this for the first time,” said instructor Megan Dwyer. (845) 658-8540; www.trapezeclub.org.
Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?
If you have intentions of visiting Paris, how do you expect to seduce someone in the city of romance if you don’t know how to approach them? The Language Immersion Institute could be your saving grace. The institute offers intensive weekend courses—16 hours’ worth of class time acquired Friday through Sunday—with an emphasis on the development of conversational skills. From Arabic to Yiddish, 20 languages are taught to students seeking to expand their knowledge of foreign tongues. All languages and levels are offered at each session, and classes usually contain five to 10 students. (845) 257-3500; www.newpaltz.edu/lii.
Paint your palate blue and gray
We all have to admit that at least once in our lives, we have been so moved by a piece of artwork that we have thought to ourselves, “I wish I could do that.” The Hudson Valley is teeming with locations to bolster your artistic talent. Whatever your artistic medium of choice—painting, drawing, sculpting, printmaking, airbrushing, music, drama, folk arts—classes exist for it in the Hudson Valley, so you too can begin to incite jealousy with your own artistic creations. Work with charcoal, ink, and pastel at the Mill Street Loft in Poughkeepsie. Try your hand at water-based media as you paint the streams, rivers, and waterfalls of the the Catskills at the Woodstock School of Art. Create a painted rug of your own design for your home at the Walkill River School in Montgomery. Learn to fire pottery at the Unison Arts and Learning Center in New Paltz, or learn the basics of printmaking at the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale. www.millstreetloft.org; www.woodstockschoolofart.org; www.wallkillriverschool.com;
www.unisonarts.org; www.wsworkshop.org.
Put on your red shoes and dance
It has been said that there is no freer form of expression than dance—almost everyone can do it, and you can do it practically anywhere. As Matt dances his way across the world (for the few who may not know who Matt is, amuse yourself at www.wherethehellismatt.com), you can channel your inner Gene Kelly or Ginger Rogers with a dance course in the Hudson Valley. The Barefoot Dance Center in West Park emphasizes alignment—healthy placement of joints and bones—and every student choreographs as well as dances with control from the muscles in their bare feet. Or you can opt for the more traditional dance styles at Strictly Ballroom in Newburgh, learning the “graceful, free flowing movement of the waltz, the strong dramatic moves of the tango, or the expressive and sensuous sounds of the Latin rhythm.” But if you’re looking to do some time traveling in your dancing, you can learn the Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, or how to swing with Got2Lindy, which teaches in dance studios in Kingston, Highland, and Gardiner. Got2Lindy sponsors free student-run practice nights at the Muddy Cup in Kingston every Thursday. The Got2Lindy dance studios also offers ballroom classes in cha cha, the foxtrot, and waltz. (845) 384-6146, www.barefootdancecenter.com; (845) 569-0530, www.strictlyballroomdance.com. www.got2lindy.com.
