One New Thing #: 8

What: Cardio Dance Class

Where: Maiden Motion

Cost: $10

Fave thing: Honestly, the choreo to Ring the Alarm by Beyonce was aggressive and fun and I enjoyed all the punching, throwing and kicking even when I was 2 moves behind.

Okay. Let’s be clear. Dancing is not one of my major talents, much less dancing as a workout. Give me a bootcamp class or rock wall to climb and I’m your girl. I can knock out push ups and lunges all day.

I also don’t particularly feel all that comfortable with dancing - I never did it growing up (I’ll blame the parents for the whole homeschool thing for that ;)) and don’t really feel I have the movement in my bones, if you will. Wedding dancing I can get behind because it feels loose and fun, but choreographed group dancing with 5 seconds to learn the moves? Now we’re pushing my limits! To be fair, I think I *could* get into dancing with enough time to learn the choreography and I’d actually be open to exploring this - it would push me 100% out of my comfort zone and that can only be good right?

But back to cardio dance…. I ended up here at 8 PM on a weeknight for my little sister’s 25th birthday. And if the birthday girl wants a group dance class, she gets it. So 13 of her friends gathered at Maiden Motion in Richmond, VA for a private class full of 50 Cent, Taylor Swift, Ru Paul and Beyonce.

The first thing they did was dim the lights - yay! - and I claimed a spot in the back row. Our instructor was great - full of energy and she reviewed each song for us before we went through it. She talked through the moves while we practiced and then gave great cues during the song. We went through 5 songs in total as “practice” and then sped through 4 more for our final version. By the last 4 I was exhausted and totally over dancing - HA. I worked up a big sweat which I didn’t think I would do, but the class was a really good combo of dance and cardio: lunges, kicks, jumping jacks, etc.

Here are my pro-tips for survive your first cardio dance class:

Stand in the back row - this works great until there’s a move where they make you turn to the back of the room and you’re all of a sudden in the front.
Get a good view of the teacher so you can eagle eye stare her down to try to figure out what the heck you’re supposed to be doing.
Just MOVE - it doesn’t really matter if you’re doing it right or even following along. Shake your leg, move your hand and just step around with your feet. It works itself out.

Maiden Motion in Carytown was GREAT (it’s also women owned which is very cool!) and a superb host. This was a really fun group experience, even if it’s not my regular work-out routine. But maybe if they throw in some push ups!

One New Thing #8: Cardio Dance Class