Sunday, July 29, 2007

Rave: BodyJam makes most women hot

The gym I go to runs a Les Mills program, including Body Jam, a dance aerobics class taught by the talented, enthusiastic Belinda. Jam is choreographed by a guy from NZ who I have seen on TV and don't much like, but nonetheless it is a fun routine.

There's something pretty weird about Jam, though, especially at my gym. The Jam class in the area I live in caters predominantly to white middle class women from (at a guess) age 18 up. Most of us (again, at a guess) are youngish professionals, in the 20-30 bracket. Not that any of that is weird, though; what is weird is that twice a week these women come out and hip-hop, latin dance, bollywood it out, house dance, dance like dirty early 90s rock music video girls, and generally shake their booties -- not what you would expect of this group, right?

What's really weird is that, at the beginning of the class, 10-20 normal looking women walk into the room (and so does Belinda, who is way too cool to be merely normal). Once the music turns on, though, you have 10-20 women getting loose, having fun, and enjoying their bodies (there are often also 10-20 gawkers looking in the windows, but as a participant you learn to ignore that fairly quickly). This is not to say that every woman there is completely comfortable with every move, but when a woman is having fun at that class (and yes, where I go the participants are almost invariably women), she looks great even if she isn't doing the right moves. It's because she feels great, and is enjoying her body. At the end of the class 10-20 normal, if slightly sweaty women walk back out of the class again.

continued in next post

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You are absolutely correct about the effect BodyJam has on women. I'm the male counterpart of the women you described. I'm also the only guy at our gym who is brave enough to do BodyJam on a regular basis. Sometimes I feel like I'm crashing the girls private dance party, but most of the time, not. I'm married and secure in my masculinity. I like to dance and usually stay in the middle. For a straight guy,it's a lot a fun with an incredible view!