Sh'Bam

I've always loved to dance.

I started dance lessons when I was 3 and I spent the next 9 years in dance studios on Saturday mornings.
I took 3 years of ballet, 3 years of tap, and 3 years of jazz.

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I also "choreographed" a gazillions dances for various shows throughout elementary school and one of my best memories is spending hours and hours dancing in the basement with one of my best friends.

In my university days, I would actually go to the bars to dance, not drink!! Okay, so I drank while I was there, but that wasn't my reason for going ;)

Sadly, I haven't been dancing as much as I should in my real-world adult life.  I do take the occasional Zumba class and I got the DVD's as a gift so every now and then I'll have a little dance party in my living room. But dancing is always more fun when you're doing it with others so I was excited that a new class called Sh'Bam was coming to my gym.

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Here's the class description from the Les Mills website:

"Set to a soundtrack of chart-topping popular hits, dance music that is heard in the hottest nightclubs around the world, familiar classics remixed and modernized Latin beats, SH’BAM™ is the ultimate fun and sociable way to exercise."  (source)

Unfortunately, the class wasn't that great :( The music was awesome, but the moves were just so-so. There was of step-touching, grapevining (um, I guess that's not a word. Oh well, you know what I mean!), and cheesy arm movements. And while the site says the average calorie-burn is around 500 per class, I barely broke a sweat.  

Oh well, I'm glad I tried it, and I might give it another shot when the new release comes out. Since it's a new class, maybe it will get better with time? For now though, I'll stick to Zumba when I want a dance-style workout. And maybe start shopping for new dance workout DVDs to mix it up!

Did you take dance lessons when you were younger? Do you know of any good dance DVDs?