Posted April 28, 2011
When I dropped by a Graham Jazzercise class earlier this month, I have to admit that what I saw wasn’t remotely what I expected.
No leg warmers, no leotards, no feathered hair and no elegant stretching maneuvers choreographed to Christopher Cross love ballads. Instead, participants in Ellen Hull’s class were working out in sweats and T-shirts as the pop tunes of Lady Gaga filled the Liberty Junior High School cafeteria.
Hull recognized my surprised look and smiled politely. That look, she said, is among the most common responses she gets when she tells people she’s a Jazzercise instructor.
The others: “Jazzercise still exists?” and “What’s Jazzercise?”
“It’s not what most people think it is,” Hull said as we talked about the archives of hilariously dated workout videos on YouTube. “That’s the way it used to be, but it’s much different now.”
Not only has Jazzercise grown up, according to the company website it’s as popular as it’s ever been with 7,800 instructors teaching 32,000 classes each week worldwide. The company also claims sales growth each of the last nine years and it ranked 17th on 2011 Entrepreneur Magazine’s Franchise 500 list.
“It’s not as popular here as it is in other places,” Hull, 45, said moments after finishing a class with nine participants. “But in California, they are doing this in high schools. And it’s pretty impressive how big it is in places like Georgia and Texas.”
In the South Sound there are 11 instructors, according to the company website.
Jazzercise was founded in 1969 by Judy Sheppard Missett, a jazz dance instructor. Her idea grew into a workout phenomenon by the 1980s.
The 60-minute workouts combine cardiovascular exercise through jazz dance with strength and stretch exercises also set to music. While the workouts might be best known for the gaudy ’80s attire, its flamboyant movements and almost comical instruction from Missett, such as “Move your boogie body” and “find your pelvis” … and “it’s OK to move it,” Jazzercise has remained relevant by evolving.
Modern Jazzercise, like what Hull teaches, includes hip-hop dance moves and elements of yoga, Pilates and even kick boxing.
“It is the most bang you can get for your fitness buck,” said Marty Miller, 54, a student in Hull’s class. “The cardio kicks your butt and the stretching is great. It keeps you in shape.”
Betty Vertrees, a 50-year-old Graham resident, loves Jazzercise so much she takes as many as six classes per week.
“I’ve tried so many different things, but this is the only thing I’ve been able to stick with,” said Vertrees, who’s done Jazzercise for 20 years.
Sisters Kathi Miller and Kim Kleinsasser started Jazzercise nine months ago.
“It’s something we’ll do for the rest of our lives,” Kleinsasser, 54, said. “We love the music and the movements and we’ve really toned up.”
While Jazzercise is often compared to Zumba because both evolved from dance, those who’ve done both say they’re not as similar as you might think.
Unlike standard Zumba classes, Jazzercise includes resistance training with either light weights or resistance bands.
Neva Encogco, a Graham resident who tried Jazzercise for the first time in the ’80s and has also taken Zumba classes, says she finds it easier to catch on to the structured Jazzercise dance moves than Zumba’s flowing Latin dance moves.
“It’s a count of eight on the left then a count of eight on the right,” Encogco said. “It’s pretty simple.”
Karen Michaud of Puyallup likes that the Jazzercise workout routines are the same any place she should choose to work out.
“If you go to a Jazzercise class on vacation you’ll notice that the Cee Lo Green ab routine you do there is the same as the one we do here,” Hull said.
Hull started doing Jazzercise 17 years ago in Lakewood and became an instructor in 2008 because she loved the program.
“I was drawn to it because I have a dance background,” Hull said. “What I really like about it is that it is an all encompassing workout. You notice a big difference in your whole body.”
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Copyright © 2011, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash.
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