Can Street Dance Find Its Footing in the Fitness World?

We're entertaining the possibilities that street dance could find an audience in worlds outside of our community. For example, what about the fitness world? Yes, we've seen the cheesy hip hop aerobic videos that fill the shelves at your local Target and convenience store. But let's think about it seriously for a moment. Dancers from our culture spend a great deal of time training and conditioning their bodies to a level where they're truly athletes in their body awareness. So why not bring some of that sensibility to interested folks in the fitness world?

How would this play out? Some dancers might find opportunities to become personal trainers to fitness models or bodybuilders. They might help their clients get a sense of rhythm and stage presence. Certainly special workout routines could be designed, inspired by elements of street dance foundation. When you go to a studio class with some element of street dancing, newcomers who aren't aspiring dancers often are taking those classes because they want a good workout. Why not appeal to that demographic with our skills?

The counterargument is that these endeavors could change the raw nature of our street approach. We're entering into a commercial market when we start appealing to another demographic. But is it possible that the health benefits could outweigh these concerns? The expertise that we've gathered over years of training could potentially help those who are seeking to enhance their fitness regimen. Sometimes, it's humbling to realize that whether we're dancers or fitness aficionados, we're often sharing the same common ground when we talk about personal health.

Maybe that's the big realization when we start talking about street dance in the fitness world: that as dancers, we often think too highly of ourselves and can be exclusive with our culture. At some point, all of us discovered this dance first-hand and we stepped into this underground world. So we were newcomers at one time too. Will we be willing to invite others one we get past ourselves?