Science can tell us why dancing is such a pleasure. Monday, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Pinederosa Park Freedom Hall in Westlake, long-time instructor Rody Broussard and his lieutenants, tell, show and guide the “how” of dancing.

“Speaking from a physiological perspective, dance music is known to stimulate the orbitofrontal cortex, the major reward pleasure region of the brain,” according to an online Science ABC article. The cerebellum is also involved in timing and coordination. “In other words, you can say that whenever music starts beating, our supplementary motor area prepares us to get moving.”

Simply put, hearing a pleasing beat or a rhythm makes folks wanna move. Some scientists point to the development of dance as similar to the development of language, necessary for social interaction.

A free or affordable dance class might help individuals enjoy a little exercise or social interaction, maybe gain the confidence to dance at the next Southwest Louisiana festival or a fast-approaching wedding.

Broussard called the two-step, the jitterbug and the waltz “your bread-and-butter dances, the one you want to be able to pull out of your purse when needed.”

“I took my first class when I realized I have been so busy with my real estate career, I haven’t developed any hobbies,” Marilyn Boudreax said. “For me, it’s a stress reliever — the one hour in my day that I shut off the phone and do something for myself.”

Boudreaux and others who have learned from Broussard have mustered up the courage to compete and Broussard’s studio, Bayouland Ballroom, has produced some world-class competition winners.

“Students come from Texas and across Southwest Louisiana to learn,” Broussard said. “I teach in Vinton on Thursdays, but there is a small administrative fee assessed there if you don’t live in the Recreation District.”

He didn’t say learning was easy. Boudreaux said for her, learning was fun. Broussard did say that in the four decades he has been teaching, he can count on one hand the people who just couldn’t get it.

“Nothing is easy when you first begin and it’s human nature not to want to do what you can’t do, or aren’t good at. But like anything, the more you do it, the better you get,” he said.

The Westlake classes are 80 percent learning and 20 percent dancing.

“I have what I call my lieutenants going around and helping,” he said.

All ages attend from 20-somethings to “seniors.” Even people who don’t move as quickly as they once did have learned to enjoy dancing with Boudreaux’s help.

Back in the ‘80s, Broussard tended bar at Cowboys, until management decided it needed an all-female bartending staff. He was fired.

Two things happened shortly thereafter. He noticed an advertisement in the American Press with a number to call to find out about a job for someone who enjoys traveling and meeting people. He called. The Arthur Murray School of Dance answered.

Then a friend in his group that went out dancing every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday — as many did during that time — asked him if he knew the dance he was doing was the Samba, a Brazilian dance. Or, she might tell him it was the Cha Cha, a Cuban dance. He didn’t. He was just grooving to the music, but it made him think maybe he should find out more about the Arthur Murray School of Dance.

“I’ve always found it easy to move, to dance, to follow the rhythm of the music,” he said.

After six weeks, he was teaching. When the school sent him out to different groups for six weeks of lessons, the school made $600. Broussard made $6 an hour, and finally he thought: I can do this on my own, and that’s what he’s been doing.

Show some courage. Have some fun. Learn to dance. Check out the Facebook pages for Rody Broussard and Bayouland Ballroom. To find out more, call 337-794-0819.