We want to get you moving! Exercise promotes physical fitness, which is a major component of good health. We want you to burn fat, develop cardiovascular endurance, and create lean muscle mass, not just to improve your body aesthetics, but also to achieve long-term health benefits, such as an improved quality of rejuvenating sleep and reduced risk of heart disease. Exercise doesn’t just tone the muscles you can see, but also the ones you can’t, e.g. your heart. Additionally, by increasing your strength and flexibility, you can prevent injury and slow the age-associated loss of muscle function.

Exercise also releases tension in your muscles and raises your body temperature, which has soothing effects. In every class, we will give you solid cardiovascular workouts through easy to follow movements aimed at getting your heart pumping and muscles working.

With options for beginners through the more advanced in all our dance and fitness classes, we welcome people from all walks of life, regardless of age, size, shape, background, ability or disabilities. Our relaxed class environment is not competitive nor judgmental, and is aimed at providing you motivation and self-confidence.

Music and dance are just plain fun! We want you to have a great time. Our instructors are creative and enthusiastic, making your every experience with us fun and exciting. We want to be the highlight of your day! We believe that classes should be fun, which is what will motivate you to stick to our dance and exercise programs long enough to get many kinds of benefits. Additionally, exercise, in general, boosts your mood, which is always a plus. We want you to feel happy.

Dance and other forms of exercise are not just great for body aesthetics and body function, but are also great for the mind and soul. Dance and exercise routines require mental skills that exercise our brains. Since the brain is a part of the body which we “either use it or lose it,” keeping it in shape is a priority. Evidence also shows that people that add a workout routine into their lifestyle do better in academics and at work. This may be, in part, because of the increased flow of oxygen to our brain, which nourishes our nerve cells. Exercise might just make you smarter! Dance/exercise also promotes mind/body connection, helping us become more aware of our physical entity and connecting us to our “chi,” which is our inner spirit or inner source of strength. This makes us feel energized, strong and confident. In addition, with regular exercise, you are likely to experience a decrease in negative thoughts and emotions, and a boost in social interaction, which is an essential component of a balanced human life.

"Mens Sana In Corpore Sano." Exercise relieves stress. Research has shown that regular exercise improves symptoms of anxiety and depression. In fact, exercise has been found to be just as effective as antidepressant drugs (Xoloft vs. exercise) in relieving anxiety and depression, and it helps prevent relapses, regardless of whether the initial treatment was with drugs, therapy, exercise or any combination. Exercise raises the levels of mood-enhancing neurotransmitters in the brain, increases endorphins which make us feel good, and can reduce the levels of stress hormones in our metabolism.

Furthermore, dance and exercise classes can increase your self-confidence. They can help you sculpt a fitter, sexier body that will not only make you feel more confident about the way you look, but can also increase your libido. The physical and mental strength that you develop in exercise classes (e.g. in martial arts classes) can make you feel more confident in social environments that would usually provoke anxiety or stress. Lastly, dance classes can boost your self-confidence on the dance floor, making you feel more competent.

That said, through feel-good music and exercise, we hope to help you feel more relaxed, happier, more positive and balanced.

From the beginnings of human inhabitance of Earth, we have imitated nature through our voices, in the rhythms of our musical instruments, and through the movements of our bodies in dance. We have copied singing birds; emulated animal mating rituals and hunting strategies; reproduced the sounds of rain, our breath and our heartbeats; and even copied the undulations of ocean waves and the circular movements of the heavenly bodies. This has occurred in every civilization throughout time and in every part of the world.

My interest in learning about diverse cultures and desire for cultural tolerance motivated me to create classes that portray the music and dance genres of modern times as a fusion of ancient and newer cultures from all over our planet. My goal is to remind us of the basic human motivations that have led us to create music and dance, and to prompt us to evaluate how much history we all share. In doing this, I hope to promote open-mindedness and a culturally balanced community.

With Fiesta Afrolatina, my goal is to introduce you to many of the music and dance styles of the Americas, emphasizing those that share African roots and the traditions associated with these. I’d like to take you on a journey through Caribbean and Latin America, as we explore the music of Central America and the islands, featuring reggae dancehall, reguetón, salsa, guaguanco, bachata, merengue, punta, calypso, soca, and merengue/hip-hop; as well as music from South America such as Peruvian festejo, Colombian cumbias and vallenato, and Brazilian samba, axé, pagode and lambada. I’d like to take you on a journey through time, as we contemplate the earthy movements and syncopated beats that originated in Africa, and which were brought to the Americas on slave ships, combining with European and Native music and dance to create the genres that we now recognize as Latin American. I want to expose you to these Afrolatin beats in a natural and relaxed party atmosphere, in an environment of cultural immersion complete with linguistic, historical and cultural input, just as one would learn if living in Latin America.

Likewise, the goal of Gypsy Routes is to introduce you to the world of modern flamenco in the context of its rich history and the diversity of the people and cultures that amalgamated during its development and through its continual evolution. I have drawn from many genres, including traditional flamenco, contemporary Spanish dance, Belly Dance and South Indian to create a class that illustrates how contemporary Flamenco has borrowed from cultures such as Indian, Middle Eastern, Turkish, North African and Latin American.

All of my dance and fitness classes have been influenced by many styles, and the instructors with whom I share my dance and fitness space share with me a philosophy that leads us all to promote a community of social and cultural awareness, respect and appreciation.