Social Workout

Workout

Swing Dance Tuesdays

Started taking a lindy hop class on Tuesdays, so I've got my Tuesday workouts lined up for the rest of the month.  I also stayed for the dance practice afterwards, for a grand total of 2.5 hours of dancing tonight.  Woohoo!

Workout

Running update.

I HAVE NEGLECTED MY WORKOUT BLOG!!!

DVDs

Fitness from the Far East

I first turned to belly dancing to mend a broken heart. This actually had a counterproductive effect — after class I would feel all sexy and hip-rolley and realize I had no one at home to try out my awesome moves on.  Eventually with time and a rebound or two my sorrow dissipated, but my love of belly dance, and later Bollywood and Bhangra, stayed strong. Since classes are expensive, I've learned to nurture my Belly/Bolly/Bhangra dance love through technology. Here, a list of my favorite Far East Fitness DVDs: 

My Body

Brooke Siler on Pilates Consciousness and Slowing Down

Brooke Siler is the founder of re:AB Pilates and the author of The Pilates Body and Your Ultimate Pilates Body Challenge.

I was working at a very small gym in the West Village back in '91, and one day a woman brought the Pilates equipment into the front space of this gym, and I got to watch her training there. I couldn’t afford the private sessions, so I started taking the mat classes, and I couldn’t do them. And I thought, what? I was very fit, what was there I couldn’t do? I’ve always loved the gym. I have four brothers. I was very athletic. I was shocked that I was not flexible enough and strong enough from my core to really perform the moves well. That to me was frustrating and exciting at the same time. It was really just a matter of minutes before I decided I had to know everything about this.

Wake Up Call

Life is a Grand Thing

I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.

~ Agatha Christie

My Body

Jennifer Brugh on Dancing in Sneakers and Water Bottle Service

Jennifer Brugh is a dance instructor and the founder of Nightclub Cardio.

Nightclub Cardio came out of a personal need. I wanted a fun way to work out. I always dreamed of going to a night club and wearing sneakers and workout clothes and just letting go, dancing and sweating without worrying about heels and makeup. So finally I just called a friend I knew who had a club and asked if I could bring in DJ and do a class. Now we’re a sold out weekly event in two states.

Wake Up Call

On Being Fearless

Valente nao existe.

The fearless don't exist.

~ Capoeira saying

Wake Up Call

To All the Sensual World Proclaim

Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife! To all the sensual world proclaim. One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name.

~ Sir Walter Scott

Magical

Duet on the Cliffs of St. Kildan

They were known to navigators in ancient times as "the islands at the edge of the world." An archipelago of giant rock islands, 100 miles out into the ocean from Scotland. For 3,000 years the islands were home to the St. Kildan people, Gaelic speakers and "famously accomplished climbers." The last of the St. Kildans left the islands in 1930. Now, an opera tells their story, and this dance.

Lyrical emotions in motion

There is an amazing feeling that overwhelms one’s mind, body & soul when lyrics correlate with dance. Tonight I had such a feeling in lyrical dance class. Lyrical dance is defined as a dance style influenced by jazz, ballet & modern dance…inspired by the lyrics in a song & utilizing emotional expressions while articulating each movement.