Dancing classes can be a fun workout

Last night was mine and Anny's first class of Kizomba, a sensual African dance originating from Angola.  There were 3 other men who attended the class and 2 other ladies, making 7 students in total plus the teacher.  Two of the men were African so I suspected that they would have good rhythm, and pick up the dance fairly easily compared to the average European.

The teacher herself is Swiss and she first encountered Kizomba whilst she was in Portugal, and has been teaching it for around 4 years.  She told us that she teaches Kizomba not in the original style, but rather in one that is adapted to European brains.  What she means by this apparently is that Europeans are very fond of fancy moves and footwork, so she is essentially teaching a jazzed up version of the original dance.

The basic steps seemed quite easy and we were able to start dancing in couples after around quarter of an hour of learning them.  The beat is also very simple and easy to follow when compared to a dance like salsa or bachata.  Sonja (the teacher) showed us the various ways to hold our partner, ranging from very close and personal to slightly more spaced apart (which she said was useful when dancing with someone who is really sweaty or whom you don't like very much).  The trick for the ladies to keep their distance when the man is trying to get closer than they are comfortable with is to use their elbow on the mans upper chest as a spacer.  With Anny I was dancing much closer than I was with the other ladies, being the angel that I am.  None of the ladies used their elbow to keep me at bay thank goodness, so I cannot be that sweaty or undesirable.

Kizomba music is lovely to listen to as well as dance to.  The words are sung in Portuguese though, so I have absolutely no clue what they sing about, with the only Portuguese word I know being "um beijo" (after hearing it numerous times from my colleague Chris when he is talking to his wife).  "Um beijo" literally means "a kiss".  It could be that they are singing about killing people and gangsters for all I know, but I imagine they are actually singing about love and romance and sex, which is much nicer.

The class was very enjoyable and does give a little bit of a workout.  I cannot use it as a replacement for a run however, as one of the 3 key points Sonja said to keep in mind whilst dancing Kizomba is to be lazy and conserve your energy.  It can serve as a supplement to the rest of my training regime though.  I am very much looking forward to the next class.

Do you use dance as part of your training program for another sport?  If so, I would be interested to hear about it.