First Posted: 7/25/2012

LUMBERTON — Saturday is the day to shake a leg.

The third annual National Dance Day was established by Nigel Lythgoe, the executive producer and judge for the popular television series “So You Think You Can Dance,” for the last Saturday of July.

As part of the celebration, Purple Door Productions will hold free introductory dance classes at 209 N. Elm St. in downtown Lumberton at the fountain plaza.

The following classes will be available at the following times: general dance classes for children ages 5 to 9 years old at 1 p.m.; Zumba classes for people of all ages at 1:30 and 2:30 p.m.; jazz classes for people older than 12 at 3 p.m.; and hip-hop classes for people older than 10 at 2 and 3:30 p.m. Each class will be 30 minutes long.

According to Jeanne Koonce, the owner of Purple Door Productions, dance is an appropriate art form to celebrate because anyone can do it.

“Not everybody can paint, and not everybody can sing well,” she said, “but everybody is born with rhythm and everybody can move.”

Koonce said people only need to show up wearing proper shoes.

The day, which was introduced as a congressional resolution on July 31, 2010, seeks to promote healthy lifestyles and combat childhood obesity.

“I just want to introduce people to various parts of dance,” Koonce said. ” … As an artist and a performer, I think that what ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ has established is really important and necessary.”