Aerobic Dance With Class

WHAT AND WHY Dance-inspired cardio classes with names like urban funk, cardio mambo (and other Latin variations), Afro-Brazilian dance, cardio jam.

A few years after gyms began using distinctive cultural rhythms to raise the pulse, spicing up the usual step-lift-step choreography, the trend continues strong. Why? It's sexy, social, subversive -- and energizing. Looking for something to shake up the old treadmill routine? Woo, baby. Didn't know you had those muscles, did you? And some moves can translate directly from the gym onto the dance floor.

BEST FOR Exercisers of all levels who like their workouts to be fun and paced to a lively beat.

DETAILS "African dance can be pretty hard [work], actually," said Tom Brose, general manager of City Fitness. "There are a lot of near lunging or squatting movements. People's legs get a serious workout. . . . For people who don't want to do 200 squats on each side, they can get a workout and they don't think about it. They say, woooo, that was fun, just grooving to some drum music, and if you have a dynamic instructor, you can really work up a sweat."

TRYING IT Hey, this isn't so hard. I'm partying down with the swivel-hipped babes (and one buff guy) in "Crunch Salsa," an easy-to-follow beginner's video that Health magazine named its top cardio video pick for 2005. Yeah, it's corny, but it's a hoot. And as long as my neighbors don't make catcalls and press their faces against the windows, I can master this footwork. (The hipwork may take a while longer.) Working to an insistent drum beat, instructor Giselle Roque de Escobar leads you through assorted box steps, grapevines, front and side moves, then combines them into variations on salsa, merengue and samba. Will the routine raise your pulse? A little, at least. Will it boost your spirits? Unquestionably.

LOOK ELSEWHERE IF you have two left feet, no particular social aspirations, can't hear a beat -- or fake it. It helps to be able to move your hips a little, too.

WHERE TO FIND CLASSES LIKE IT Try the downtown Y's Kukuwa (Latin African Carribbean) or Afro-Brazilian, Cardio Jam at Sports Club/LA (mix your mambo with hamstring curls and jumping jacks), bellydance aerobics or Latin African Caribbean dance at City Fitness, or an "urban funk" class at Results, the Gym. Or get loose in the privacy of your home with cardio dance videos of different levels of difficulty.

-- Susan Morse