Tuesday Morning Wellness Class with Pauline & Cris!
“INTERVIEW with Pauline:”
BW: Hello Pauline!
P: Hi Bobbey
BW: It’s so nice to have this opportunity to get to know you a little better. Thank you for agreeing to get together! I guess first of all, where are you from?
P: I was born in Manchester England and went to school in Liverpool. Then we moved to Belize where we lived for awhile and I continued my schooling there.
BW: oh, how awesome! I don't think I've ever met anyone that lived there - just stopped there while cruising! neat! While you were living in a tropical paradise I was trudging through the snow in Minnesota... Enough about that! How long have you been in Palm Coast?
P: I have lived in Palm Coast 25 years, I love it here.
BW: This is certainly a nice community - I feel the same way - though we've only been here a couple of years. Now, what can you tell me about your line dancing experience?
P: 7 years ago I got interested in line dancing with friends only. Then I joined a class and it continued from there - I just love it. The girl that was teaching our class retired from instructing and I was not sure how it would go, but I offered to take the class over and I love it!
BW: Its a great class you have and a wonderful group of ladies and guys that are very loyal to you and appreciative of your leadership. I am one of them. We were very worried about you last year - and not just for selfish reasons but of course we wanted you back teaching the class... your good friend Cris held things together until your return, but we really like having both of you here!
P: I am trying to get back into the teaching. I have had some Cris's help in the mean time. Now I am back - doing more and more each week as I get stronger.
BW:And we are thrilled to have you back and showing improvement every week! We are also pleased to know that you intend to continue with your class - again, we are being selfish, but you need to know that you are appreciated by all of us. Do you have any thoughts about the future, any thing you can share with us?
P: My expectation is to continue to make the line dance class a wellness, healthy getting together with friends and new people. I think its important to remember that the focus for our line dance class is for wellness, to keep moving, enjoy our friends, enjoy our lives!
BW: I can't agree with you more! You are a really nice, talented, giving lady and an inspiration to us all. Thank you again for sharing your time and thoughts with me.
P: See you Tuesday
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And from Cris:
About Me: Cristin L Sheynon,
Chief Organizer and Sponsor, Music Organizer and DJ, Part-Time Dance Instructor
Born in Manila, Philippines and immigrated to Daytona Beach, Florida, U.S. in June of 1969. Naturalized in 1983.
Had my formal training in classical dance, music and playing instruments (piano, guitar) while still in the Philippines. I love most genres of music and appreciate the history of music and dance.
I served 3 ½ years in the USAF the tail end of the Vietnam War. Upon leaving the service, I changed from my career in nursing, briefly working various unique and interesting jobs until finally settling for a career in the Real Estate Title Insurance industry, as a Title Researcher/Examiner. I consider myself semi-retired, now.
I have lived most of my teen to adult life here in the U.S. mostly in Daytona Beach, Orlando and Palm Coast. I’ve also lived briefly in a few other cities and states, but returned to Daytona Beach in 2000 from Tampa to care for both my mother and sister. I moved with them to my present residence in Palm Coast in January of 2001. I joined the “Path To Wellness” program in the summer of 2008 and voluntarily assumed the role of music organizer and dj before year’s end. I also became a part-time dance instructor at the beginning of 2009. When it became apparent that Ms Em Dinopol’s, demanding physical therapy practice would require more of her time and attention and that she could no longer provide sponsorship and personal supervision over the group’s activities, one of her best friends and a senior member of the group, Ms Ophie Cordero took on the voluntary role of leadership and primary dance instructor and I assumed the additional responsibility as the group’s primary sponsor..
To me the term “line dancing” has a broader definition not necessarily associated with the term popularly used to denote a type of synchronous Country Western style of dance. Whenever I am asked how long I’ve been line dancing, I can safely say, “pretty much from the early part of my childhood.” more specifically since I was “hula dancing.” My formal introduction to line dancing, began simultaneously with my introduction to Ms Em Dinopol’s “Path To Wellness” program in 2008, now known as “Dancing4Wellness. Judging by our loyal following and ever growing membership, we seem to have found a unique and very valuable niche in the community. Only the physical capacity of our dance floor seems to limit our weekly attendance. We are always on the lookout for a larger place to accommodate our members and fresh new faces and enthusiasts in the hopes that our legacy will continue on.
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Info on Dancing4Wellness group from Cris:
A little over 7 years ago, Ms Em Dinopol, a physical therapist in town, created and sponsored a broad range wellness program which she offered freely to her patients and the community in general. She called the program, "Path to Wellness." The idea came about as a result of her own recuperation after heart surgery. She saw a need for a fun way for people of all ages to engage in a healthy daily exercise routine for preventative, maintenance and/or rehabilitative purpose. Her program included jogging, cycling, walking, canoeing, thai chi, targeted body exercises and line dancing. As the popularity of her program grew along with the success of her practice, it became clear that the wellness program she started would need dedicated external supervision. Among the most popular of them was her line dancing group which was then supervised by her office manager and the group’s dance instructor, Ms Maria De Guzman nka Ms Maria Laurent. One of her closest friends, Ms Ophie Cordero, volunteered to take over the position of dance instructor and overseeing the group. For the next 5 years, Ms Cordero devoted herself on a weekly basis to instruct members of the program in international line dancing, more specifically her love of latin dance. At the end of 2013, Ms Cordero felt it time to end her tenure as the group's leader and the vacancy she left was filled by Ms Pauline Reynolds, the group’s backup instructor and Ms Cristin Sheynon, the group's dj and music coordinator. Other instructional support also came from other long time members, Ms Aida Seguritan and Ms Edna Dy. Ms Jane Vales along with her husband Eric have also played a pivotal roll maintaining the group membership and attendance roster and miscellaneous organizational matters.
In 2014, the group not only took on its own identity and renamed itself, “Dancing4Wellness,” but relocated from its long time venue at the Portuguese American Cultural Center to the Columbian Club of Palm Coast. Emphasizing the original concepts on which it was founded, the group continues to offer an hour and a half of carefully selected popular low impact line dance choreographies to promote exercise and social interaction. The program draws its dances from international sources and other popular modern musical genres, but tends to lean towards Latin styles of dance. The range of body motion and flexibility required of Latin dance does seem to conform more to the physical therapy requisites of our founder’s original purpose. Rather than focus primarily on learning dance, the group strives to get everyone, especially beginners with no dance experience whatsoever, on the floor dancing and exercising within 3 minutes or less of instruction.
Dancing4Wellness (www.Dancing4Wellness.org) offers its members opportunities to continue to expand on their newfound friendships or cement older bonds by offering various other social and/or instructional opportunities throughout the year. A yearly summer party is usually held within the months of July or August. This is an opportunity for the rest of the community to join our members, their friends and family in celebration, dining, dance and fun. Judging by our popularity and the friendships that have developed throughout the years between various members of the group, the future continues to look very bright for the program.
BW: Thank you Cris and Pauline!! (April 14-27, 2015)
