When Stefan Benoit, chemical engineering junior, mentioned to his girlfriend he was interested in learning how to swing dance, they both jumped at the chance to sign up for a beginning West Coast Swing dance class offered by LSU Leisure.West Coast Swing dance is one of the many classes offered by LSU Leisure to University students and Student Union members for a discounted price and the public at regular price. Of the 70 leisure classes offered this summer, 16 are new, because of high demand and the increasing popularity of local instructors. Christy Hedlund, psychology senior, is in the beginning West Coast Swing class. She said the class helps keep her busy during the summer.”I’m a person that likes to have a lot of stuff going on, and I don’t like to have a lot of free time,” Hedlund said. “It’s a nice, slow, steady pace and not stressful at all.” Jewell Reid, beginning West Coast Swing, Hip Hop and Diva Dancing 101 instructor for LSU Leisure, said she has a blast teaching her classes and enjoys helping beginners. “What I really like doing is taking people who have no dance experience,” Reid said. “They don’t understand where the downbeat in the music is, and they have no clue that they can move their body in a new way.” Reid added it is fun to take a beginner, train them over six weeks and get them to do new things they’ve never done before and show them a new level of fun.Lynne Maxwell, leisure coordinator, said leisure class instructors come from on campus and off campus. “We look for instructors who are passionate about their subject matter and enjoy sharing their knowledge with others,” Maxwell said. There are typically more Union members and community members taking classes than University students, mainly because the classes are non-credit, according to Maxwell.”Certain leisure classes, such as wine tasting and dance, are always popular with LSU students,” Maxwell said. Jessica King, a member of LSU Leisure’s A Taste of Wine, said she wanted to continue taking classes after graduating. “After I graduated from [Mississippi State], I felt like I was missing something when I didn’t have classes to go to, and I wanted to continue learning for my formal education,” King said.Another member of A Taste of Wine, Sherri Newton, said she decided to take this class because she wanted a wider knowledge of wine. “I want to know why I like these types of wine and what is it about them that I like,” Newton said. “I don’t particularly care for white wine, but the instructor makes you go through the whites, so I found out that there are some whites that I like.”Isoko Onodera, LSU Leisure’s Drawing Portraits class instructor and Fine Arts graduate student, said she enjoys the students want to be here to learn and make the effort to participate. “If people are in the program at school and they are required to take it even if they don’t want to, professors kind of have to help them because the students don’t want to be there,” Onodera said. “But they actually want to learn. They make time and money for it … and I can feel that they really enjoy it.”Onodera said her greatest desire is to see her students progress but in a unique way. “The drawing skill is different from person-to-person, and now at this point, I just want them to improve their skill,” Onodera said. “I don’t want everyone to draw the same way, and I want them to have individuality and uniqueness.”—-Contact Jennifer Raines at [email protected]