A new dance fitness craze is soon to be taking the UK by storm. FitSteps is the creation of Strictly Come Dancing professional dancers Ian Waite and Natalie Lowe, and Strictly competitor and Olympic swimmer Mark Foster. Taking key steps from our favourite Ballroom and Latin dances and combining them with proven fitness techniques, FitSteps will soon be a gym favourite.
Georgina from Fitcetera was lucky enough to attend the FitSteps showcase, held at Everyone Active Woodside, Watford, and speak to Ian and Natalie about the exciting new dance fitness class. Find out what they had to say and what the class is all about…
How long has FitSteps been in the making?
Ian: We started talking about creating FitSteps early last year, but it wasn’t until after we came off of tour in July that we had our first chance to get together.
Natalie: But Ian’s been wanting to do this for about 8-9 years now. We started developing some routines and it’s been amazing, and we’ve done a few trials and the interest is getting ridiculous. It’s been a year of wanting to show the world what we’ve been up to and we’re really excited.
What was the inspiration for FitSteps?
Ian: Ballroom and Latin dancing! It’s been the love of my life since I can remember. As a young boy I wasn’t really into dancing, but I was sporty and competitive. I was talked into learning a dance for a competition, and I won the competition. From there I got the bug. I enjoyed performing and the competitive element of it. I was European youth champion by the age of 18.
During the first year of Strictly, I started to think: if you can have body pump, why can’t you have a ballroom breakout class made up of dance moves, not necessarily aerobic style movement. I’ve been teaching it for the last two years, just it was called something else. But I got together with Natalie and the Fitsteps team and FitSteps was born.
Natalie: Dance for me is not just physical, it’s more mental and it puts me in a really good place. If I’m mentally switched on, through dancing, my body’s going to naturally feel good. I think we forget about this and the social aspect of ballroom dancing. Just to get people in a community, learning how to ballroom dance – you can’t go wrong!
So what brought the three of you together?
Natalie: Strictly brought me to Ian. We were professional partners when I first joined the UK series from Australia. I was head-hunted from there and was offered either Australia or UK and I chose the UK. The year I was supposed to come I was supposed to dance with Mark Foster, but my manager kept me in the country. But we ended up dancing together on the tour last year. We hit it off and got on like a house on fire. He learned a lot in the tour and he lost loads of weight and he really physically and mentally just switched on. Even for an Olympian – Louis Smith said he was more fit during Strictly than he was during Olympic training. These people are fit already, just get that fine tuning. Imagine someone that hasn’t done fitness for a while, and how much of an improvement they’re going to see.
So Mark approached me last year and said “I love dancing, I’m really bad at it but I’m doing it, and I love it.” So we want to get people that don’t know how to dance, learning and doing Ballroom and Latin American.
What are the benefits of Ballroom and Latin dancing?
Ian: Dancing uses every part of your body, kind of like swimming does. You use muscles you wouldn’t usually use: the small muscles, intercostal muscles, supporting muscles, muscles in your legs. No matter how many classes you do, after a FitSteps class you’ll have aches and pains you never will have had before.
Also for kids, it improves communication skills, standing properly and proper posture, working with a partner, taking direction, being more coordinated. Some sports don’t necessarily give you these skills, especially solo sports.
Natalie: It’s an all over workout. Out of all the dances you would expect to like, like the Samba and the Jive I much prefer the Waltz; because it’s conditioning, it’s slow and it’s rhythmical, and you’re really working the legs and you’re toning. And the Paso Doble, where you need taution through the arms and it’s more artistic and creative. When you’re learning to dance you don’t know what you’re doing but you’re working up a sweat at the same time.
 |
| Some of the kicks and flicks you’ll do in a FitSteps class |
What makes FitSteps different to other dance-based exercise classes?
Ian: FitSteps is a new form of exercise class without it being aerobics based. It’s all dance moves – steps you would learn in a ballroom class. You could take what you learn from FitSteps straight through to a ballroom class and you’d already know the steps.
In aerobic classes like Zumba, it’s very high impact and rigid, whereas FitSteps varies in speed and intensity and is fluid. It also has stretching movements, and rotation, which you possibly don’t get from other exercise classes. For example with the Waltz, it’s floaty and lunging, and with the Rumba you do a figure of eight with your hips. This uses your intercostal muscles and there’s a resistance in the body. It’s almost like Tai Chi.
The dancers on Strictly have insane bodies and mostly eat what they like. When we’re performing we obviously watch our weight and watch what we eat, most mostly it’s the moves that we do that keep us in such good shape. I would challenge somebody to do this five times a week, and still eat their normal diet, and for it not to have an effect on their body – it will have a massive effect.
Natalie: It’s not overly energetic to the point where you’re out of breath – it’s more of a slow burner. We’re teaching technique, the basic Waltz, the basic Cha Cha rhythm so at the end of a 45 minute class you’ll have learned Waltz, Tango, Quickstep, Jive, Paso Doble, Charleston and you’ll have done a warm up and a cool down.
I think there’s not enough opportunity to learn to dance, and going to a dance school is quite intimidating. Going into a gym to learn a crazy kind of intensity dance is quite intimidating. But with FitSteps it doesn’t have to be high intensity, and you don’t have to have a partner; anyone can go. If we can make this really easy, for every generation, every population, every demographic – kids, parents, adults, grandparents – then it’s for everyone. Say a 70 year old lady comes to the class, we will have a FitSteps programme in place for the older generation, called GoldenSteps – for the golden oldies! My mum won’t get in to the gym, but she loves dancing, and if we can teach people to get out there we can open it up to new ages.
 |
| You can have fun dancing, no matter what your age |
How did you incorporate different fitness techniques into the class?
Natalie: We’re working fitness industry experts within the FitSteps company, so we’ve taken their advice. We’re not just teaching people how to dance; we’ve looked at what dance is working which muscles, and trying to balance out the dance styles within the routine.
We are working on core, toning, conditioning, cardiovascular, flexibility – everything. Within each class it’s a whole body workout. We would rather work all areas of the body in that time rather than just getting the heart rate up. I came off tour and was a little bit unfit, and we had to do two classes the day we came off tour – I couldn’t walk the next day! I felt it in my arms, my calf muscles, and my core.
But when you’re teaching it, it doesn’t have to be intense. I teach the lower intensity and Ian will do the higher. So for example if you don’t want to do your arms as well as your legs with the Jive you don’t have to. It’s really accessible for all abilities, and all ages.
What about music for the class, will there be a special FitSteps soundtrack?
Ian: We will have music made for the class, we’re actually in the process of doing it, but at the moment we’ve just picked our favourite pieces of music. The great thing about FitSteps is you can use traditional or modern music, whatever you like as long as it has the right beat. Say for example the Cha Cha, or the Waltz with three beats to a bar. Really you can just choose what’s inspirational for you and as long as you’re motivated by it, it’s the perfect music.
And how will the instructor training programme work?
Ian: We will be training the instructors. We’ve got six dances for the programme: the Waltz, Quickstep, Jive, Cha Cha, Tango and Samba, and we will teach the four basic moves which they can build on. It’s not strictly choreographed either, there are various different ways to choreograph classes. For example you could do it freestyle where you shout out a move and they copy, slow or fast. You can choreograph it to the music: select beats and bars, break it down into chorus, verse and instrumentals and then slot the moves in. You can even base it on colours where you pick a different colour for each sound and attach a move to that colour. Then you can write it down to see which moves you are doing. It’s all shown as part of the training.
Freestyle creates excitement and anticipation of “what are we going to do next?!” It’s very akin to Ballroom and Latin dancing because the man leads and the lady follows – it’s the same thing really, just by visuals and commands.
Thanks so much for speaking with Fitcetera, and I’m really looking forward to trying out the class!
You can register your interest now at www.fitsteps.co.uk to find out more about a chance to train with Ian and Natalie and become a FitSteps coach.
For more information on when the first classes will become available visit www.everyoneactive.com.To find out how Georgina got on in the class, read her review here: http://fitcetera.co.uk/2013/03/03/fitsteps-the-review/
Hey there I am so excited I found your webpage, I really found
you by accident, while I was researching on Digg for something else,
Anyhow I am here now and would just like to say thanks for
a tremendous post and a all round interesting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to go through it all at the moment but I have bookmarked it and also added in your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read more, Please do keep up the superb job.
It looks great, Georgina. Perhaps you can work out some simple exercises for an 82-year-old to keep fit! xx
I love to dance & would love to do a fitsteps class but I’m currently living in Australia at the moment. Any likely hood that Fitsteps will make its way over here??
Hi Sharon, unfortunately I don’t know what the plans are for FitSteps outside of the UK, but based on its popularity here it wouldn’t surprise me if it did come to Australia! Fingers crossed 🙂