Photo by Flickr user La Madrileña
By Heather Cipu
I’ve been known on occasion to dance wildly around my apartment when a song I particularly love comes on (don’t judge, you know you do it too), and I’m often in awe of how someone like Beyoncé does her thing in 5 inch stilettos. My dancing is usually done barefoot and my sassy dance moves usually come through in attitude, not in my ability to maneuver in heels. That is, until I heard about the new class being offered by the Joy of Motion Dance Center at Atlas, Stilettos Shape.
JOMDC Atlas held an Intro to Stilettos Shape Workshop this past Sunday, and I jumped at the opportunity to give it a try. Going into the class I was a little unsure. I have dance experience, but it’s by no means my forte. All of my uncertainty however, flew out the window when the workshop began. As we got started Anique Sahara, our instructor, started off by saying this was a no judgment space, and we should think of how we all dance around our living room when our jam starts playing. Clearly this was for me.
The class is designed with the latest pop divas’ dance moves in mind, and is set up to be more of a workout to keep you moving through a series of sassy power moves rather than focusing on perfect dance technique.
We started with an up-tempo warm up and moved onto some toning and strengthening floor work. We then got to learn a full on dance routine and closed things out with a cool down session. From the very beginning we were all sweating. It was quite the workout, and I had so much fun! The dancing was super high energy and I wanted to just keep pushing myself further; simply because the more I put into it the more fun I had.
The session is designed to really work from your mid torso down, focusing on strengthening and sculpting your leg muscles, and boy did it ever. We were told the higher the heel, the more of a workout your legs will be getting. My legs were definitely hurting the next day, but not in a bad way. It was the pain of accomplishment felt after a really great workout.
Given the class name, heels are strongly suggested, but not mandatory. Anique did stress that everyone should do what felt most comfortable for them. There were some ladies in the class who stuck with bare feet or sneakers the whole time, some who started off for the warm-up in sneakers and switched to heels for the routine, and some who stuck it out with some truly impressive stilettos for the entire class. Regardless of what each person chose to do, everyone seemed to have a great time.
The new drop-in class will take place every Sunday 12:00 – 1:00 PM at JOMDC Atlas starting April 1st. I know my inner Beyoncé will be kicking in and bringing me back again for sure.