You love coming to your dance fitness classes every week, combining your love of dance with a workout at the same time is both fun and exhilarating, but have you ever wondered where it all started? Come with us down the rabbit hole back to where it all began, and let us take you on a journey thru the evolution of the exercise classes we can’t get enough of.
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
In 1968 Kenneth H. Cooper, MD, MPH, released his ground-breaking, best-selling book, Aerobics. An examination of the amount and type of exercise required to maintain health. Taking the verb “aerobic”, meaning “to live in air or with oxygen.” Dr. Cooper added one letter—an “s”—and in an instant created the noun “aerobics”.
By 1969 his book had inspired dancer Jacki Sorenson to create the first Aerobics Dance program. Targeted towards women, it combined dance moves, exercise and music to create a non-traditional workout that was also fun.
1969 was a big year for Dance Fitness with Jazzercize, created by dancer Julie Sheppard Messet also launching. This new workout, incorporating Jazz dance with strength training and stretching, quickly gained popularity for its fun and energetic routines. By 1982 Jazzercize had became a franchise and there was no looking back as classes exploded across America.
DANCE FITNESS EXPLODES
The 1980’s saw the rise of the celebrity fitness instructor, with dance fitness expanding both inside studio and gym spaces, but also in-home video workouts and on our TVs. Spurred on by dance movie blockbusters like Flashdance and Perfect, Dance Fitness was suddenly mainstream.
Perhaps the best known 80s Aerobics icons were Jane Fonda, who brought Dance Fitness into women’s loungerooms and Richard Simmons, who encouraged everyone to get off the couch and get moving.
By the late 1990s Dance Fitness had gone global thanks to Alberto “Beto” Perez, a Colombian fitness instructor, who created Zumba, a Dance Fitness program that combined Latin music with dance moves from styles such as salsa, merengue, and samba. Zumba became a worldwide phenomenon, attracting millions of participants with its fun and inclusive approach to fitness.
Other Dance Fitness programs caught the wave of excitement in the early 2000s with Les Mills BodyJam, created in New Zealand, hitting the global market with Release 15. Combining the latest club and house tracks, with choreography perfectly synched to the music, Dance Fitness was no longer about repetitive simple moves, she was growing up.
WHERE WE ARE NOW
Since then Dance Fitness options have continued to expand and grow in diversity across the world, with all types of dance styles and music re-mixed to create inspiring and heart thumping workouts. So whether you love Swing music, Bollywood, Latin, Hip Hop, R &B, 90s Club anthems, Broadway musicals or the latest Pop Music, there’s a Dance Fitness class playing your favourite tunes.
With our love of everything Dance Fitness at GLOW DANCE https://glow.dance we are intent on bringing to you the best of what the world now has offer in the Dance Fitness Space, all under the one roof. ZUMBA , BODYJAM , GROOVE , 567 BROADWAY , SWINGTRAIN , CLUBBERCISE and GROOVE3 along with home grown classes such as RETRO AF and POP FEVER ensure that there is something for everyone.
So if you love to dance and want to improve or maintain your fitness level, why just workout when you can join a dance party and get a workout at the same time! It’s Fitness Dipped in Fun!