Line Dance a-la Gaga

All things Lady Gaga are a bit odd, and the recent Gaga inspired dance workshop at Ninth Street Dance lived up to that reputation. Not sure what to expect but excited about the adventure, GWG and friends met up on a Saturday afternoon to exercise, try something new, and check out this local dance studio. What we found was met with mixed opinions…

The class instructor introduced herself and briefed us on a resume that sounded encouraging, but didn’t mean much to us as beginners. Prepared with index cards for reference, she began to teach the dance steps piece by piece—a routine we believe she choreographed herself. The first several steps came fairly easily but after a short while there was a bit of confusion as she moved to different sides of the room, and at one point it seemed that she was relying on some of the seasoned dancers to remember the moves.

The dance class turned out to be two hours dedicated to one line dance to the song Poker Face by Lady Gaga. Expecting more of a “jump in and go” type class, the GWG and many others seemed frustrated by the combination of varying skill levels and unorganized teaching style. While the 64 count dance was a challenge to memorize, the slow pace of the first hour did not get our heart rates up and would barely count as exercise. The second hour was spent “perfecting” the dance and working up to full speed—several standout dancers were noticeably sweating and out of breath, but for the rest of us it never got very high intensity.

We saw several people leaving throughout the class and given the $20 price tag, we were also a little disappointed in the end result. One of us decided to sit out and observe halfway through—partly to take pictures but mostly out of frustration. The other of us liked the concept but not the execution. Being big fans of most everything Durham we hate to give a bad review, but in this case we have to say this dance class did not convert us into Little Monsters or have us signing up for the next workshop.

Get Fit - Outdoor Ice Skating

Inspired by the recent wintery weather, the GWG decided to try ice skating as a fun and festive physical activity. We’d heard about Winterfest in Raleigh—an outdoor natural ice rink located in City Plaza—and made the trip to check it out.

The location in the middle of downtown Raleigh provides a nice backdrop and is convenient to local shops and restaurants—however, the rink is surrounded by construction on two sides. Let us also warn you, this is no Rockefeller Center—we were both surprised by the small size of the skating area.

We arrived around lunchtime and joined a small crowd of families enjoying a leisurely ride around the rink—a couple of people challenged each other to races while others were still working on their balance. Pop music playing over speakers added to the enjoyment as we circled the rink for about an hour.

Because of the small size of the rink and its patchy condition, it was a little hard to get our speed up but we did start to warm up after several laps. Using an online calorie calculator, we estimate that based on our size we each burned about 250-300 calories.

Once we’d had our fill of going around in circles, we decided to warm up and headed across the street to Starbucks. Keeping with our new healthy theme, we each selected lighter beverages—one a tall Skinny Vanilla Latte (90 calories) and the other a grande Chai Tea Latte (240 calories). It may have cancelled out our exercise, but it was a nice way to wrap up our chilly afternoon activity.

If you’d like to try out Raleigh’s own outdoor ice skating rink, this season’s schedule ends after this weekend. The cost is $8.00 per person and includes skate rental.