Last month I was asked to attend a dance fitness workshop through DivaGirl Fitness that offers classes that unleash the sexy within.

The class I was taking was no ordinary dance fitness class -I turned in my comfy sneakers for a pair of high heels. That's right. . I was going to twist, turn and burn some calories with a pair of 3-inch heels. I can barely go a few weeks without rolling on my ankles in flats or runners. But heels? Yikes!

Donning a black pair of heels with a strap (to support the weak ankles), I took my place on the floor with ten other girls. The majority of women were first-timers like me so we didn’t know what to expect. An introduction to Nuvo-Burlesque, the workshop is designed for women to learn about style, technique, and more importantly, how to get their sass on!
“People kind of get the wrong idea from Burelsque dancing -there’s no nudity,” says Carla Catherwood who creates and produces Nuvo-Burlesque choreography with her cabaret group Burlesque Beauties. “I decided to coin it as Nuvo Burlesque to get a fresh, new take on the style. It’s based off being a trained dancer with a more feminine, sexy style of dancing.”

This dance style has dancers whipping their heads, tossing their hairs, getting low with dip downs, swaying their hips, showing off their pirouettes and high kicks and it involves a little bit of theatrics.

While we didn’t do any high kicks or pirouettes to the floor (thankfully), we did manage a few hair whips, hip rolls and struts. Carla made hair whips and turning look so easy, but my head just didn’t want to turn. At one head spin, I would lose my balance or sense of direction.


A few tips she gave us: Pick a spot in the room to look at (that good, old spotting technique), decide which way your head is going to spin and, quoting Willow Smith, whip your hair back and forth. The hair will just go with it.


As we were doing hip rolls facing the right, I managed to move along with the music and just as I was getting the hang of it, we were instructed to switch directions. That’s when I felt like Derek Zoolander. I had no problem hip rolling to the right, but for some reason I just couldn’t roll as smoothly to the left. No matter how much I willed myself to move, my body didn’t want to cooperate.

Twenty minutes into the class, we let our inhibitions go and strutted across the floor working it like Beyonce. It also helped that Carla’s enthusiastic energy (“Stick those butts out ladies! You want them to give each other a high five when you walk across the room.”) and little anecdotes ("When Willow Smith’s Whip My Hair came out, I thought they made this song just for me") allowed us to feel comfortable in our own skin.

By the end of the class, we had learned a little choreography incorporating every little bit of hip swaying, strutting, back arching we learned in the past hour. Some gave up on the heels choosing to go barefoot and with the energy and laughter in the room, it felt more like a girls’ night out than a workout class.

While Nuvo-Burlesque classes taught by Carla are in Toronto, there are many dance-fitness classes in the GTA -just head to DivaGirl Fitness for their class descriptions and there's sure to be similar classes throughout Canada. At the end of the day, the class is meant to have women feel confident and have fun while getting a workout that plays up to a woman's femininity.

As Carla put it, don’t take yourself seriously, the bigger you go (with your moves), the better you’re gonna look. Even if you feel like you’re a crazy person you’re gonna look amazing doing it.

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