Taylor Swift’s song “Shake it Off” plays during the Refit exercise class that Susan Smith teaches in Livingston.
“OK, we're going to channel our inner 13-year-old,” Smith instructs her class. “We're going to pop that ponytail and crack that gum. And we think that boy down the street is so cute, and we're just going to have so much fun!”
During the workout, the entire class jumps, sweats and laughs.
Smith, 56, makes a joyful noise when she’s off the clock. On the clock, she’s a dental assistant with UTMB Health Correctional Managed Care. She’s been with UTMB for 10 years, but she’s been dancing her entire life.
“I tell my ladies they have to carve out time for themselves so that they can go and exercise,” Smith said. “You have to spiritually feed yourself. You have to physically feed yourself. You have to emotionally and mentally feed yourself and make yourself strong so that you can be there for others.”
That’s especially true for women, she said.
“Women are the glue in the family,” Smith said. “I mean, women pretty much take care of it all. And if we don't take care of ourselves, we can't take care of it all.”
And that’s why she’s teaching Refit three days a week, to care for herself outside of her job. Refit is described as “a community-centered, value-positive fitness experience designed to engage the heart as a muscle and a soul.”
Dancing is her joy
“I have been a dancer pretty much ever since I could stand in front of a television,” Smith said.
When she was a little girl, her parents gave her a pink tutu and ballet shoes. She would stand in front of Walter Cronkite and dance so the family would notice her. She went on to take tap and ballet lessons. In high school, she danced on the drill team.
“After high school, I got married to my high school sweetheart and kind of grew up,” she said.
She had two daughters she started taking to dance class. Their instructor soon became a friend who encouraged Smith’s love of dance and helped her reach a personal goal.
“I achieved my dream of learning how to dance on pointe shoes,” she said.
More than 30 years later, Smith felt the desire to go back inside a dance studio.
“I wanted to do it so I could just get healthy and because I had gained quite a bit of weight over the years and getting older and slowing down,” she said.
Livingston had a new dance studio that mainly taught tap. Smith wanted to take a class, but the instructor said she didn’t have a place for her, Smith said.
“That was kind of harsh, but OK,” she said.
She wound up at a different dance school teaching dance to children. She wasn’t physically getting out of it what she wanted, she said, but emotionally she got a lot of satisfaction.
Ready for Refit
Her adult daughter told her about an exercise dance class she took called Refit.
“It’s good music, and it's fun ladies,” her daughter said. “You just dance, and you giggle and you just make a joyful noise. You have fun. You socialize and you build each other up. It's just really a blast, Mom.”
Smith liked what she heard. She did her research, and in April 2022 took a certification course to teach Refit classes.
“I came back and talked to the local gym, and then I started teaching,” she said.
Now, she teaches Refit three days a week—one night at her church and two nights at the gym.
“I love it,” she said. “Instead of teaching little girls, now I'm teaching big, little girls because we're all little girls at heart.”
Finding a work-life balance is paramount for Smith.
“My life is too short,” she said. “To spend your time tied up with stress and struggles as far as your job, family and health issues, and all these stressors that can get you wound up tight and tied down to where you don't even realize it.
“Once you find your joy," she said, "you hold on to it and don't let anybody take it away.”