Hip-hop fitness

With its cul-de-sacs, neotraditional architecture and manicured lawns, Daniel Island isn't exactly a hotbed of hip-hop culture.

But a former costume designer from Los Angeles is tapping into beat-heavy music for a group exercise class that seems to have struck a chord with a mostly suburban mom crowd.

Like hip-hop itself, the class evolved in a very natural, grassroots way.

Angel Roberts, a Myrtle Beach native who spent 12 years in L.A., learned hip-hop dancing when she was a student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She was teaching inner-city youths dance at a nearby Boys & Girls Club. They ended up teaching her hip-hop, an interest she kept while living in L.A.

Roberts moved to Daniel Island in July 2006 and six months later started teaching hip-hop to children at a small ballet studio on Daniel Island. Their moms loved what their children were doing and asked if Roberts would create a class for them. When she did, she emphasized exercise, incorporating elements of cardio,strength and flexibility, in what she calls "Peace Love Hip Hop" classes.

"I wanted to provide a full-on experience of a dance class but also incorporate exercise," says Roberts. "I wanted to make it worth them getting a baby sitter for a few hours."

The class started with 10-12 and grew exponentially.

In 2008, she struck a deal with the Charleston Recreation Department to use the gym at Daniel Island Middle School and started packing it with 60 people, overwhelmingly women.

She has expanded adult classes to the James Island Recreation Center and most recently to the Bees Landing Recreation Complex, in addition to keeping classes for children on Daniel Island and in Hanahan.

Roberts creates a new, original dance routine to teach in each session.

But besides the dance, she weaves in elements of sustained cardio, such as warm-ups that involve jogging and walking lunges, plyometric drills emphasizing high heart rates and strength, exercises that tap into core strengthening and yoga moves that involve flexibility.

Participants not only sweat and breathe heavily, but many also smile and laugh.

Nancy Abercrombie, 42, of Mount Pleasant has been participating in the hip-hop classes once or twice a week for nearly two years. She says it's partly because the class is always different and partly because of Roberts herself.

"She's got a contagious enthusiasm. Without being like a cheerleader, she makes you want to work out. I feel great after every class," says Abercrombie, who has two children and works part time for the Center for Birds of Prey.

Like others, Abercrombie also likes that Roberts only charges on a per-class basis, a $10 fee, instead of making participants pay for a series of classes or for a membership.

"My favorite part, though, is that she always comes up with a new routine. I've been to aerobics classes that are the same, over and over, and by the time you've done five of them, you feel like you could teach them yourself. Her classes are always fresh and new."

Reach David Quick at 937-5516 or dquick@postandcourier.com.

 E-mail this story   Printer-friendly version  

Copy and paste the link: