Kierra Gilbert

Dr. Patty Hovis has significant higher education teaching experience, having taught several years at Polk Community College in Florida and as a graduate teaching assistant while pursuing her doctorate at UF. Her practical experience includes work at the UF health and fitness center and with outpatient rehab at Winter Haven Hospital. As for her education she has a Ph.D. in Applied Physiology and Kinesiology, University of Florida and an MS in Exercise and Sport Sciences, University of Florida.

ME: To begin, how about you tell me about your life growing up? Tell me about your background?

HOVIS: I am from a very small town. We have generations that have settled in Central Florida; there I was raised around more of a country-type aspect. Grandparents did cattle which had a lot of influence with horses, cows-those sorts of things. I went on to do dancing, started dancing at a pretty young age, probably around 9 years of old. I started a dance studio at the age of 17 to help put myself through school, then I ran my own business! At 19 I started teaching at a community college. Thus, I was working with them and I was mainly training people to stretch and a lot of those people were baseball players. I started doing classes for them, and then I finished with a bachelor’s degree at the University of South Florida. I continued teaching for the community college, then decided to go on to get my master’s degree. I now have a master’s degree from the University of Florida, and from there I did six years of orthopedic rehabilitation at a Central Florida Hospital. I did Outpatient Rehab Ortho. I did a lot of different things that had to do with examining certain things such as strength and different devices to tell surgeons about how the muscles were recovering, and working with home exercise programs as well. As well as working within their team PT’s, Doctor’s, et cetera. I did 6 years of Ortho. And then an opening came available with a state college that I had worked with before, interviewed for them, and started working there with them. After a couple of years, I decided to go on for my Ph.D. at the University of Florida. I decided to get my Ph.D. instead of keeping a tenured-year position. After I finished up with the University of Florida with my Ph.D., I took a position here.

ME: I think I already have the answer to this question, but do you have any special hobbies?

HOVIS: Well, of course I have a dance background. With me starting my dance studio, I really like seeing us active and still like to be involved with dancing as much as I can. I love swimming and living in Florida and being surrounded by a lot of pools and lakes to swim in, lots of swimming goes on. I really enjoy snow skiing and water skiing. Snow skiing was not as great because you know Florida isn’t the best place for snow skiing. So, I was having to travel, but I do enjoy it. Those are probably my main areas.

ME: How and when did you start dancing? Also, what is your favorite type of dance?

HOVIS: I started dancing around the age of 9 and the reason that I started dancing was because I had lumbar lordosis. Basically, with lumbar lordosis you have the increasing curve of your lower back. With ballet it is a very structure form where we use lots of core muscles to lengthen the spine and it can help with that. I was initially put in dance to help with my spine and posture, I didn’t slump I just had lumbar lordosis. I started in ballet, classical ballet, and then after that I continued to do dance because I really enjoyed it. Started doing tap, jazz, and tumbling. When I started my studio, I had an adult exercise fitness class we did things such as water aerobics and things like that. Along with that I did tumbling, we just did mats, mat work and floor work. We didn’t do gymnastics, just tumbling.

I have always loved doing classical ballet, because it’s structured, therefore I was taught at a couple of different forms. Ballet is structured but Russian ballet is very, very structured in its form. I also took French ballet which was a little bit more flowy in movement orientated. With those types of forms, I really enjoyed it. But I do like jazz as well, I like modern as well to a certain extent. I am not a huge modern dancer. But tap and jazz I really enjoyed, I just didn’t have as many years as I did with that, like I did ballet. Ballet was a little bit more comfortable for me. Just because the amount of years that I have had training with it. At the age of 17 I had become certified of a dancer masters of America. I had received certifications then. Ballet, tap, jazz, and tumbling.

ME:  How do you interpret dancing along with your Christian beliefs?

HOVIS: Well, lots of places in the Bible says that we should dance. When we are rejoicing we should dance. I believe we should be dancing here! More than we are right now. I really believe that God made us to be moving creatures. And dance is an amazing form of movement. It is extremely beneficial for fitness levels and aspects. If you are moving a lot, you are going to burn calories and it is also a social thing. We were design to be social. God taught us to move forward and letting people join us. An easy way to meet people is also through dancing. If we put that certain characteristic out there, we get people to come and be with us, there’s no reason we can’t join each other. It allows us to have fun and God wants us to be happy. I think we need incorporate more of this movement and I think we need to be more of a moving society. If we want to be a moving community, dance is a perfect way to not only work on your physical health, but your social health as well at Southern Wesleyan.

If you sit down and ask students how do they really feel connected here, and will say some they feel connected here with about 3-4 of their friends, however if you talk to commuters they will say that they do not feel as connected here. I think our dance is a way to draw people in, to bring them here, and to be a part of this. People that are already based here, it’s going to be great. But the ones who are commuting, faculty, staff, all of them can be embraced with moving forward. And then socially, you would be interacting with a staff member that you have had no interaction with. And you get the chance to see other people and enjoying the atmosphere of being out of your office. Just having the chance to relax, and enjoy the moment. It is also a great stress relief, you don’t have to worry or think about anything else. No test, no work on your desk. It gives you a timeout to just be stress free, have fun; at the same time, I think we should be rejoicing our time with God, with being able to move. I think there is a huge Christian impact. I was just at the Alive Wesleyan service on Sunday, and he brought up a Scripture about how we should dance. We should dance for the Lord and we should appreciate the temples that He has given us. Our bodies are our temples. To be able to move it, is huge. But I think we can incorporate our Christian faith within dance.

I don’t know if you saw the group that came, but the ballet group that was here was amazing. They came out in the audience, performed, and it was absolutely wonderful. Just wonderful. I already spoken to them and said that we should keep in touch. Because it is a wonderful thing to embrace and you are never too old to dance. Never too old. We were meant to move.

ME: If there was a way that you could interpret dance within Southern Wesleyan, how would you go do it?

HOVIS: We did one social dance, for two and a half hours. We moved around and it was wonderful. There were people in there the whole time for the whole two and a half hours. Students from Clemson stayed after, the guy in the back said” we finally have to leave”, and they were wonderful about being ecstatic. This whole dance thing, can go past from where we are right here. We can reach out to our community, and bring people to Christ from just dancing with them. I did one dance event, I went to the president and he was opened that we could dance here. I was told though, years ago there was no dancing here on this campus. I do know that they were not opened for people to dance. I am not sure of the date, but I know years ago this was not something they were allowing. And then gradually there were some dances, I think they were considered formal dances. I like formal dances but I really think we need to get to a point where we are integrating this as part of your social health and we need to be socially healthy all the time. We really need social health, and just moving around; whether it is just once a month, or every other week to have an open dance. Where people can bring other people in to move together. I ask people where do they go dancing, where do you get to go dancing? Or do you even get to go dancing? When I ask other people such as adults of age their usual response would be Greenville or downtown and typical it is a bar. And I’m thinking we need to offer a safe haven for our students, as well as faculty and staff.

They should feel like they do not have to worry about the environment that they are in, that it is an environment that is embracing. And that everyone is safe here. We are all good here, you don’t have to worry about someone posting you on social media. Because, you’re going to be in a good place. And there are not going to be things to happen. I feel as if we have lost that impact. Because centuries ago, social dancing was a very big deal. And everyone was learning some form of dance. I can remember dancing with my grandfather, my grandparents did the jitterbug, and I remembered being younger and seeing that. But I’m not sure how many of our students have watched their parents dance. I believe we lost some of an essence that makes us a child of God. Because it says in there that we can dance and praise Him. You can sing and dance if you want. It is good, it’s very good. I just think there is a lot of exciting things that could happen here, and I was actually speaking to a student at Clemson that I’ve met and she was ecstatic, and told me to please let her know if Southern Wesleyan is going to open and have a dance that they could come to and how we could get them here. Isn’t that exciting? Collaboration with Clemson students would be amazing. I think it would be wonderful, I think dance is an easy way to just laugh and have a good time. It doesn’t have to be structured, you don’t have to feel like you have to know what to do when you come in. You just move. That is an exciting time for us and I am hoping to see us grow! I’ve been asked about ballroom, with probably such short notice, they couldn’t have pulled it together for this semester but my plans are to offer a ballroom class, we will do background and history but my hopes are to design it where the first month we are going to look at where Swing originated from and the different types of swing, and at the end of that month, we have a big dance. And students that are in the class, can help instruct others because we have been working on these things. And then maybe next month we will do country western or two step. Maybe next time we will do waltzing, hen maybe discuss where did the waltz originate and why do we use it? You know? What a fun way to meet people, talk and laugh at the same time. Those are some thoughts for the future stuff.

ME: When people tell you that they are uncomfortable with dancing or they don’t know how to, what is your advice for them?

HOVIS: The first thing is if they tell me they can’t dance I respond by saying you’re walking. I said country western two-step is walking. Two steps slow, two steps fast. You can dance. All it is, is walking. I say please don’t ever feel like you’re intimidated by it. Literally all it is, is walking. You can step to the side, you might step backwards. But in reality, you’re just walking. Lots of times if I am feeling really ambitious, I’ll say “let me see your hands and follow me along.” And then I’ll say that wasn’t so hard was it? Now let’s just change the tempo. Not matter what, we can do this. I do think the biggest thing with anyone is that they don’t believe they can do it. But reinforcing your faith in them is what makes this a Christian environment. When you can reinforce you’re giving a part of yourself away to say, “I believe in you.” And I think that is why dance to me is important. I look at every person and say you can dance. There are all forms of dance. I absolutely don’t want people intimated.

ME: How would you describe your experience here at Southern Wesleyan University?

HOVIS: It has been very good. One of the wonderful things here is they want to see growth. They want to see our students grow. Grow as Christians-academically and socially. The truth is that I really enjoy the impact I have here for the students. My impact here is for you to be good spiritually, emotionally, as well as physically. Of course, academics are being put on top because we want you out in communities. Working with people, and at the same time showing them how you can help them. I believe they are very open to this, and when I ask about the dancing, it was very open. I discussed what I’d like to do, and they were just like yes this is something we can work on. There are changes happening, and things aren’t as quite as easy which every place is going to be like that. But the good thing is here is I really feel like this environment is really embracing for everyone to move forward. And to get the most out of your college experience, and that was what I was excited to do here.