Roll, bounce: Rollerskating and good times return to Brooklyn as Tanya Dean welcomes crowd to skate away their blues
By Jordan Rencher and Larry McShane
Tanya Dean, after months of teaching classes online, welcomes 100 enthusiastic strangers and veteran students to her Skaterobics class in Bedford-Stuyvesant. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)
For Tanya Dean, the most important thing about rollerskating was always the easiest: Fun.
The 56-year-old skating instructor, after months of teaching classes online, wore a broad smile Saturday as she welcomed a mix of 100 enthusiastic strangers and veteran students back to her much-loved Skaterobics class in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
The participants all wore masks — but the pandemic became an afterthought as they zipped along near the Black Lives Matter mural at Marcy Ave. and Fulton St.
"My main message is that I created this to bring all worlds together," Dean said before her wheels hit the pavement. "Fun has no color, no ethnicity, no politics."
Dean's career as a skating instructor dates to 2010, when she first started with the high-energy instruction program. This was her second Saturday class after announcing a series of free weekend sessions through the month of August. And she personally thanked every guest, introducing herself before the group formed a circle and warmed up for what she views as a life-saving mission.
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"People don't understand the importance of exercise, socialization and being around people," she told the Daily News. "That's what COVID robbed us of. So what I appreciate is that we are getting the opportunity to skate, to hug again.
"So what I appreciate is the fellowship of man."
The outdoor classes began Aug. 1, and will run for free every Saturday through the month of August.
The outdoor classes began Aug. 1, and will run for free every Saturday through the month of August. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)
Once the pandemic hit in March, Dean began teaching dozens of students online via Zoom: "Skating in their bathrooms, living rooms kitchens." But she missed the human aspect of her work, even as she met new students from the Netherlands and Australia.
"The interaction with the people," she explained. "Love the people, love the community. Love the energy, love seeing people's reactions. Being with them regularly, socializing, networking, having fun and meeting great, great, great people."
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Her Saturday students shared in the fun, with veterans and newbies gathering at the end for a "skate party" accompanied by a DJ playing music.
"Oh my God it was amazing," said first-timer Terri Narine, 28, a Coney Island nurse. "It was nice. It was good just to be around the community and to groove. It just feels like a safe space to have fun."
Tami Brooks, 52, a creative consultant from Bedford-Stuyvesant, was another satisfied customer. She took her first class with Dean eight months ago, and was thrilled to be skating outdoors.
"I feel good, everybody's masked up," she said. "I feel better here than I do sitting at a bar without a mask on."
Dean's career as a skating instructor dates to 2010, when she first started with the high-energy instruction program. This was her second Saturday class after announcing a series of free weekend sessions through the month of August. And she personally thanked every guest, introducing herself before the group formed a circle and warmed up for what she views as a life-saving mission. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)
Dean agreed it felt good to be back on her skates, with friends new and old, on a summer afternoon in Brooklyn. She'll be back again this Saturday, too.
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"I eat right, I wear a mask, and then I go on with life," she said. "I don't let life dictate how I move, because then you'll be running around in a bubble, scared to death."