Finding Joy, and a Career, Putting Bodies in Motion

Vienna Woman Draws on African Roots to Build a Fitness Empire

In a small gym off a winding Great Falls road one recent morning, a dozen self-described soccer moms and 40-somethings clad in stretchy workout wear waited eagerly for the command "Move your boombsey!"

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They all but cheered when a tiny, muscle-hewn woman swept through a side glass door. "There she is!" one shouted.

Soon, Kukuwa Nuamah was shouting back in husky-voiced, West African-accented commands over blasting music -- smiling while demanding the women shimmy and twirl and, most crucially, move their boombseys. They happily obliged, breathlessly shaking their backsides.

"We come here and have our Beyonc¿ moments," Tressa Bennett, 40, said while defogging her glasses after class.

Although they might not have known it, the women were doing dances that have perpetually swirled through Nuamah's head while growing up in Ghana, while translating documents at the World Bank. Today, those moves have evolved into a high-octane African-Latin-Caribbean workout offered to the masses via DVD and public access television and in classes at offices and gyms on three continents -- North America, Europe and Asia -- where instructors preach the trademarked doctrine of Kukuwa: "Move your boombsey!"

The workout has turned Nuamah into a one-name wonder on the Washington region's fitness circuit. At 49 years old and armed with new managers, Nuamah feels on the brink of becoming fitness's next star.

"I'm like a plane on a runway," Nuamah said one recent afternoon, stepping into her BMW, Virginia license plate KUKUWA. "And I've just been given permission to take off."

The finicky fitness world, of course, is ever-ripe for new trends; witness the rise of Billy Blanks's Tae Bo, the current craze for Latin-inspired Zumba and the quick fall of pole-dancing classes. Nuamah said people want something new and pointed out that there is little in the way of African-inspired workouts. Experts say dance-style workouts are hot, though not exactly in short supply.

"That's the American dream -- to be able to do what you love, what you're passionate about, and to hopefully make some money from it," said Tom Perkins, president of the New Hampshire-based company Fitness Industry Solutions. But Perkins, who had not heard of Nuamah, warned: "From the business side, there's a lot of stuff out there."

Nuamah's certainly looks like an expanding empire. More than 100 people have passed the Kukuwa instructor certification course and teach hundreds of classes a week in the Washington region, and in Japan and Spain. Two cruise lines offer packages for Kukuwa followers, who burn off pi¿a colada calories in free classes with Nuamah. On her Web site, Nuamah sells workout gear printed with African symbols. At least 10,000 copies of her DVDs have been sold on Amazon.com and other sites, she said.

Still, her office -- and choreography space -- is the carpeted basement of her Vienna townhouse. Outside the house is a "For Sale" sign. Nuamah and her husband have decided to sell and pour more money into the business, which so far has not turned a profit.

"People say it takes 10 years," said Nuamah, her hair cropped short and her lips painted pink.