I just got home from Yoga Booty Ballet (a/k/a YBB) and I can't tell you how wonderful I feel.
I took my first YBB class months ago at Swerve Studios in Hollywood, which is a great dance studio, btw. My teacher was Bianca Arvin, a lanky Texan with a terrific giggle and endless amounts of energy.
Although I teach pole dance and rock that artform, I'm just not really a coordinated "dancer." I can't remember combinations and I generally turn right when everyone else is correctly going left. I often feel like the confused girl in a room full of Rockettes. On that day, Bianca made me feel successful and the hour and a half passed by so quickly.
I knew she was something special, so I asked her to bring YBB to my studio in Torrance and share her gift with the women of the South Bay. My idea was that I would also get free classes, since she was working for me (haha, so sneaky!) but my Sundays quickly became filled up with family obligations and I was never able to make it over.
Today, I was determined to get there because I have to perform with my Sassy Minxx again this month and I gotta drop a couple, plus the dreaded eating holidays are swiftly approaching. I know that if I'm to get through the next two months in the same clothes I'm wearing now, I damned well gotta do the cardio. And, just like before, I fell in love all over again. This class is just freaking fun!
YBB is a combination of meditation, cardio dance and intense ballet moves specifically designed to harden and boost your butt. Different teachers bring their own style, music choices and pacing to the class. You might have seen the wildly successful DVD series in your local Walmart too. I've taken class from other YBB teachers, but Bianca is still my favorite.
She chooses music that I love, like Janet Jackson and Madonna and gives me moves I can relate to like "The John Travolta Eye Sweep", "Sparkle Fingers" "Paper Doll" and the "Go Away." They're just fun. Like all the girls are grinning from ear to ear while they do them. We lose ourselves in the moves as the sweat literally pours into our socks. And yet, it's still low impact (which my knees appreciate) and everyone from 24 to 59 is keeping up.
After a killer abs set, we finally come back to meditation and close with visualization and spiritual cleansing. My mind was so clean that I was able to let my mind wander with the music and I felt like I was in a trance, laying in savhasana and traveling out of my body.
This class is a whole body detox. My body cleansed itself of thousands of cells, healthy sweat took immeasurable amounts of bloating salt out of my pores, my heart felt like it had been heard and all my muscles felt loose and yet toned. Short of my pole classes, I don't know of any other class that works the inside of a woman as much as the outside.
Bianca teaches her last class of 2008 on November 23 as she's traveling through Europe in December. You've got one last chance to join me and see why I am passionate about the good that she's doing for women with this mind/body class.
Bianca's YBB Class
@ Heart & Pole Dance Studio
1951 W. Carson Street
Torrance, CA 90501
Sunday, November 23 @ 10:30am
SPECIAL RATE THIS CLASS: $10
This is a YBB class at the studio where it was born, Swerve.
