I'm Charity Nebbe.

And this is Greetings from Iowa.

Dance a sequence of movement set to rhythm, someone moving their body.

The art of dance transmits culture and emotions and it tells stories It connects people and cultural traditions.

Coming up on this episode we'll meet an aerial dancer who uses silks and hoops to perform from great heights.

We'll need a break, dancer and author and join in on a ballroom dancing lesson.

All that and more coming up next on Greetings from Iowa.

Funding for greetings from Iowa is provided by: With our Iowa roots and Midwestern values Farmers Mutual Hail is committed to offering innovative farm insurance for America's farmers, just as we have for six generations.

Farmers Mutual Hail America's crop insurance company the Pella Roll Screen Foundation is a proud supporter of Iowa PBS.

Pella Windows and Doors Drives to better our communities and build a better tomorrow [music] After 20 years of practicing movement on the ground, Mimi Ke decided to practice movement vertically.

She's an aerialist who uses silks and hoops to improvise and create sophisticated dance in the air.

My favorite thing about it is that there's really nothing going on in your head other than this like extreme awareness of everything that's going on through your senses and through your body.

I come from a yoga practice background and the two just were kind of complimented each other really well.

When you're on the mat, your practice is to that is still your mind to a single point of focus.

And it's really hard on the mat, but in the air, it just kind of comes intuitively.

You aren't even given an option to think about checking your email or doing anything else.

It's like the easiest sort of line to that presence that people are always working for.

I guess whenever I tell people that I'm an aerialists, their first response, oh, so like Cirque du Soleil, you hang on fabrics, right?

I'd always been interested in aerial.

I watched a lot of YouTube videos and just sort of admired it from afar.

Always just thought that if I had the opportunity to try aerial I know that I would fall in love with it.

So a lot of folks think that they have to be really strong or come from some sort of a dance background.

But there are a lot of people that are flying professionally that didn't come from sort of an acrobatic dance background.

Just by doing aerial and get stronger, so it never feels like your training.

But for me, spinning, is this really, really cathartic, and I love just working on that spin tolerance and trying to find control of my body.

It's like really satisfying like mind body practice that gets you in the zone and in that place of presence.

There's definitely a lot of nervousness, but I think I and others tend to thrive in that nervousness.

And then every audience is different.

Sometimes you're performing sort of a very introverted piece and maybe the audience is really, really quiet.

Then, of course, there's also like some of the really more extroverted performance.

So usually I'll just start with any piece of music.

And I'll just start with sort of an improv prompt.

I feel like there's no mistakes that you can make.

Usually that's the type of material that ends up working into a piece of choreography.

And then I think just like getting out of your element.

Taking time off to slow down.

So it seems very fruitful for trying to create.

When I see a performance that I enjoy, it just takes me out of my day to day life and it just transports me somewhere else.

I hope that if someone were to see me perform that they might be able to experience the same for a few minutes.

My name is to Chuy Renteria I describe myself based on the hats that I wear.

I am an author, dancer, teacher, father, but I'm also Mexican-American first generation.

I am a community member here in with close ties to the town that I grew up in just 20 miles away West Liberty, and somebody trying to figure ou what my relationship is with my and what my responsibility is to my community.

We heard it when we were young is the story of my childhood into early adulthood in West Liberty, Iowa, my hometo It's the first majority Hispanic town in Iowa.

Not only that, there's a really there's there's prominent populations of Southea I grew up with Mexican friends.

I grew up with Laotian friends, I grew up with white friends.

And your neighbor was somebody c different from you in a lot of There is a lot of good that came with that.

There was a lot of it was like a else.

It's complicated.

It's a special place.

And with that specialness comes if you imagine in the eighties people growing up in such a dive when there wasn't a lot of conversations that might be happ about being empathetic or being cognizant of those differences, there can be a lot of hostilities or there can be lots of friction also.

It's been really interesting to hear the response from folks of the book because I there's a lot of universality about about it because it's you You could be first generation, any type of identity and relate to these stories because that be between that space between like there was no Mexicans on th and we were like, when?

And you know, the local radio stations or like MTV, rig So then that it becomes this.

Th weird, blurred sense of of what Valid, right, like, what can you kind of latch on to that actually other groups or folks or your peers look at as something that's admi And we found it through dance ri because it was something that we could hold on to and it was solely our own.

And I think because it was remov from any type of like racial or ethnic identity.

That's why we couldn't actually ourselves in it.

B-Boys always But here's the break right here.

So that all is good, the B-Boys are here.

I have a line in the book where.

I'm not sure if it saved me, like if it like, saved my life.

I can say that it definitely like changed the cou It gave me a sense of purpose.

It gave me a type of navigation in not only like an artistic exploration, but also just like I know who I when I wake up now, I know that I can label myself a dancer, a B-Boy, you know, and and it was a gift.

And a lot of ways.

the immediacy of dance is is som that I always will cherish and to like the fact that I can just you know, I can stand up and do and somebody can watch it and we we can connect right then.

No , writing the book wasn't my actually I actually fought writing the book in a lot of wa So I mean, and it took me a whil to get to that point, and I think what helped me kind of go get past the hump?

And I remember talking to the ed was like, OK, I'm going to do t and I'm going to write about my and my kind of journey.

But it has, to be honest, has to It was hard.

It was very hard to be so honest in it But I wouldn't feel like I could live with myself if I like kind of if I massaged it in a way that I felt like wasn't honest, I wasn't the truth with a capita Yeah.

The tricky thing, though, was being aware that I a responsibility to my friends or community members in that honesty, right?

It was something like 5-6-7-8.

I'm at a point in my life where a lot of the things that I were the things that that matte You know, like becoming the rich the most famous, most like, most well respected author or the best dancer in the world or something like that, right?

That's not what it is anymore, because I think we're wired to think that, like the immedia wins are what makes you happy.

And for me, it's it's like, no, it's something w if you can make others, if you can lift up others, if you can open the door and kee for others to come in and.

♪♪ ♪♪ Susie Murray: So ballroom dancing is just something that you can actually do with somebody else anywhere you go, anywhere you travel.

So it's something that you can use all the time and that is what people really enjoy about it.

♪♪ ♪♪ Susie Murray: I teach private lessons, I teach group classes and then I teach the college kids.

I've taught kids.

I think the oldest person I ever taught, I taught her until she was 93.

So yeah, and she was an amazing dancer, she was amazing.

♪♪ Susie Murray: There's called ballroom dances, so those are the smooth dances that travel around the floor.

So it would be like waltz, tango, fox trot, Viennese waltz, quick step, those kind of dances.

So they are smooth, gliding across the floor, big long dresses.

♪♪ Susie Murray: Then you would go to faster dances or what we call rhythm dances.

Just because they are more stationary dances they don't use as much space.

So cha-cha, rumba, swing, salsa, merengue.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Susie Murray: Either they want to come and have fun, they want a night away from their kids, a night out to do something and have fun.

Or some of them just want something that they can do together that is in common that they both like and enjoy.

♪♪ Susie Murray: Some people do it for the exercise because it's a great way to get exercise and have fun at the same time instead of the treadmill or something.

Special events is a big one.

So a lot of people come in for weddings.

And so we do choreography for their first dance.

Forward, forward, forward, side.

Nice.

♪♪ So now, swing.

Okay?

It's been a little while since we did swing.

Do you remember swing?

So triple step, triple step, rock, step.

♪♪ Angela Buswell: Swing is our favorite.

It's just fast, it's upbeat, you're constantly moving.

There's a lot of just fun movements to it in a lot of different variations.

We've learned so many different variations of it.

And wherever you go, whether you go to a wedding or just out to the bars or something like that, there's always music that you can apply it to.

So it's just kind of more universal and can be used every time.

♪♪ Susie Murray: We always have goals for each student of what it is that they want to get to or do.

We work on kind of people's balance.

As people kind of get older they get more unsteady, especially in the winter.

A lot of people come in that time of year because they're worried about slipping and falling and that kind of stuff.

So we work on kind of their grace and their poise and how to present themselves.

Quick, quick, turn in.

So we go back on the left-- Susie Murray: And I think just other people sometimes they're super clumsy and super just awkward.

And so then it's kind of getting those people to a different level.

I definitely have done that with some of my guys.

Getting them to acknowledge that now they're actually dancers and people that always want to, everybody wants to dance with them now because they are so graceful and so smooth.

And so I think it's just changing the perception of how people see people.

♪ Do you believe in magic in a young girl's heart?

♪ ♪ How the music can free her whenever it starts ♪ ♪ And it's magic Mathew Cover: The song kind of inspires me usually the theme I want to put under the songs.

You can make it goofy, you can make it serious.

There's a lot more to it than just learning how to do the steps.

There's a lot of being an actor or actress and playing a role almost.

It's a part of me that I hadn't really ever explored prior to learning how to do ballroom and that has been really fun for me.

How'd it go?

Woo-woo!

Okay, music time.

Music, maestro!

Here we go!

♪♪ Susie Murray: So the leader is going to be the person who is going to decide what you're going to do step wise or around the floor.

So you have to, as a follower you have to be able to relax and not try to guess what they're going to do.

♪♪ Susie Murray: And it's a nice stress reliever because you can just dance and everything just kind of goes because I don't have to think about anything.

I can just enjoy the moment that I'm having with whoever I'm dancing with.

♪♪ Susie Murray: I love it.

Each day is never the same and it's always a new adventure and I love that about dance because there's always more and there's never an end.

♪♪ ♪♪ My name is Jen Kranz and I'm originally from, well I was born in Montana but I pretty much grew up from the age of 9 in Las Vegas.

My name is Kate Vigmostad and I grew up here in Fairfield.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Jen Kranz: I have been roller skating since I was little.

Some of my earliest memories from living in Montana are at the roller skating rink.

I must have been in like the first or second grade or so.

And then I went to the roller skating rink in Las Vegas growing up.

And then in my pre-teen and teen years I was a rollerblader.

Kate Vigmostad: Roller skating has always been just like a fun hobby of mine.

But once the pandemic started I got really interested in pursuing it more as a serious hobby I would say.

♪♪ Jen Kranz: We met, Kate was having, she was hosting a skate and hang event, just trying to find other roller skaters in town so we could all get together and I went to her event, even though I didn't know her and I met her there and I think we became fast friends.

And I think almost instantly we started talking about some form of business.

And it has kind of just, the conversation started developing and we met in June and we started the business in August.

Kate Vigmostad: The timing was kind of right as the pandemic was starting and I was home.

I think a lot of people made big shifts.

But just got really passionate and excited about doing something new.

There are so many elements to it that were exciting and fulfilling for me.

And then met Jen and I think both of us were kind of just prime and ready to start a business.

Jen Kranz: We get most of our sales from e-commerce, from the website.

And so we do a lot of shipping of roller skates.

We do basically everything, it's just Kate and I.

We shoot all of our own videos.

We're doing the marketing, we're doing the website, we're shipping the skates, we're at the pop-up booths, we're running our store.

So it's a lot.

We do have this gold one.

It's pretty sparkly.

This one is also sparkly.

Kate Vigmostad: I mean, what's really cool about selling roller skates, I've always said this, is instead of just selling like a piece of clothing that is fun or fashionable, you're selling something that people then get to take and learn and do something with.

♪♪ Jen Kranz: When the weather is nicer we have our skate group, which has grown a little bit since we started the business.

And it's something that we actually had going, Kate actually started it with the skate and hang.

And it has grown over time.

We try to do, in the summertime we try to do skate and hang every Thursday where we have people come into the shop and meet here and we usually do like a small lesson for some new skaters and then we'll go out across the street to the square and we'll just skate around on the square.

Sometimes we go to the basketball courts at a local park.

And we just get together and try to teach each other moves or just skate around a little bit and have some music going and some snacks and it's a good time.

♪♪ Kate Vigmostad: I feel like, especially in the beginning, for skating roller skates it just feels like joy, you just feel like you have, like we have wings on our logo just because that feeling of flying, that freedom that you get, you can, it's a style thing also so you can express yourself with the way your skates look, you can dress them up, you can wear them to accentuate your clothing style, you can move and feel free.

♪♪ Jen Kranz: Some of my fondest memories are roller skating when I was younger and I really just wanted to get back to that space, freedom.

I think that we named the company Volition because I think especially a lot of moms when they have kids they kind of lose that for a while.

And so I think it's really awesome and a large portion of our customer base are also moms and so we love that we can encourage moms to connect with that childhood self.

♪♪ Jen Kranz: We're selling roller skates, but we're selling a lot more.

We're encouraging people to just really be themselves and I get really proud of that aspect of it.

♪♪ Kate Vigmostad: Yeah, I mean, I think I feel super proud of us that we have done what we have.

I think it's like kind of in awe of oh my gosh, I can't believe we created this.

But definitely very excited and inspired to keep going and see where we do get.

♪♪ thanks for joining us.

As we explore the people, places and stories of our state, we'll see you next time on another.

Greetings from Iowa.

[music] Funding for greetings from Iowa is provided by: with our Iowa roots and Midwestern values.

Farmers Mutual Hail is committed to offering innovative farm insurance for America's farmers, just as we have for six generations.

Farmers Mutual Hail America's Crop Insurance Company The Pella Roll Screen Foundation is a proud supporter of Iowa PBS, Pella Windows and Doors drives to better our communities and build a better tomorrow