With the warm weather transitioning into lower digits outside volleyball at Pier 5 won’t be a copacetic way to keep yourself moving and fit. Colder weather might make you want to hibernate and accumulate a nice layer of fat under our sweatpants and black slacks, but you can combat this by keeping a smidge in shape with some of Brooklyn’s most wallet-friendly indoor options. Depending on the class, trade in your Lulemon see-through yoga pants for some respectable workout or dance gear. Now repeat after us “jeggings are not work-out clothes.”
Streb
51 North 1st Street, Williamsburg
Streb has a good selection of physically challenging classes ranging from $10 to $35. With names like Flip & Tuck, Trampoline, and Action Bootcamp, these classes seem perfect if you’re looking for something outside your comfort zone, as long as your comfort zone isn’t rock climbing and jumping out of planes. These adult extracurriculars are designed to “confront issues of falling and fear,” according to the gym. The “foundation” of their creative process, POPACTION, is on Mondays and will run you $15/class or $135 for ten classes. POPACTION intertwines “dance, athletics, boxing, rodeo, the circus and Hollywood stuntwork.” Despite their claims that these classes are for all body types and ages we wouldn’t invite our 50 year-old dad with us.
Mark Morris Dance Group
3 Lafayette Ave, Fort Greene
Mark Morris Dance Group has a ton of dance classes in various genres, like Hip-Hop and Advanced Ballet, that go for $10 to $16. Stretch and Core Strengthening classes are only $15 when they’re taken together, instead of $10 each. Both classes together take an 90 minutes of get ‘er done.
If you want to keep your wallet heavy, we highly recommend the free Dance with the Mark Morris Dance Group class. Feed your inner Black Swan by getting down with four to five members of the highly lauded contemporary dance group. There’s one class per month, on Saturdays, with the next one October 11. We’re not sure you’re going to lose any inches, but it’s definitely cool to tap, contort and move your feet beside professional dancers. We’ve been assured it doesn’t get crowded, but it is first-come first serve.
Brooklyn Boulders
575 Degraw Street, Gowanus
This is the year you try rock climbing. There’s a $29 Groupon for a Learn to Boulder class to get your started, and a day pass will run you $25 if you get hooked and want to come back some time. The risks of this extreme sport are well-mitigated by safety standards and education provided by the folks at Brooklyn Boulders. Let’s just say you have a bigger risk of getting a ticket for riding between train cars than getting hurt while rock climbing. It’ll get your blood pumping and tone the muscles in your back, arms, chest and legs. In other words holding unto ropes while climbing a wall is the closest to full body workout you’ve done since full sprinting for the Mr. Softee truck this summer.
Brooklyn Dance Project
495 Third Avenue, Gowanus
This studio offers two classes we like, Jazz Funk and a Hip Hop/Dancehall infusion. They sell 10-class packages for $165, or you can buy their $60 special where you pick one class of your choice to take four times in four weeks. Extra bonus points to you if know the difference between reggae and dancehall.
LAVA Studio
524 Bergen Street, Prospect Heights
You know how in those 80’s movies the guy learns how to dance, overthrows withstanding societal norms and gets the girl? While women are not trophies to be won surely some lass (or lad) will envy your efforts after attending a class at LAVA Studio. Someone should admire the acrobatic dance moves you’re sure to learn at this studio founded by artists. Try the Move Art class for $15. Your body will thank you or be really confused as this class incorporates ancient Chinese Qi-gong, improvised movement, and dance.
Dance Fever Studio
159 20th Street, South Slope and 3009 Avenue J, Midwood
This studio doesn’t only teach salsa, you can also learn ballroom, Argentinian tango and bachata. Heck you can even get your hustle on (Afro: optional). A one-hour class is $10. A two-hour class is $20. Seven weeks worth of classes is $70 and eight week’s worth of classes is $75.
Salsa Salsa Dance Studio
55 Fourth Avenue, Park Slope
Ain’t nothing like the sexy gyrations of a Latin American fav to keep your pudge from getting any pudgier. One month’s worth of classes gets you four two-hour classes for $65, with a $10 registration fee. Beginner classes start November 1 and November 7. Their classes are more homegrown in that instead of having set times and dates for different levels, you start a class at the beginner level and keep the same teacher and time as your moves become better and better.
Bonus Tip: If you’re an experienced salsa dancer already, you can audit an intermediate or advanced class for free to see if it’s your speed.
Latin Fever
1069 Cortelyou Road, Flatbush
Need more salsa options? Latin Fever has the same deal as Salsa Salsa Dance Studio: $65 for a month’s worth of two-hour classes once a week. Three months will run you $160 and six months $300. Latin Fever has a more traditional class structure with a beginner salsa class on Wednesday nights and advanced dancers on other nights.
Dance Atlantic Studios
2929 Atlantic Ave., East New York
Zumba’s only one step-up from Billy Blank’s Tae-Bo, but what if we told you Zumba classes at Dance Atlantic were only $10 and that you can get a 10-class pass for $60 that’s good for three months? In that case, don’t be to proud to take the same class your dear aunt Gladys does to stay fit enough for the Electric Slide. Zumba will do wonders for your ability to haul more food from Fairways to the subway to your front door. The studio also has a weekly 90 minute salsa classes for $45 for four weeks of classes, if Zumba isn’t your thing.
Sacred
197 Clifton Place, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Yes, as the picture of the girl on the pole hints at, you can take five pole dance classes at this Bed-Stuy studio for $30. If you want to up the ante you can buy 10 classes for $49, and 20 classes for $89. If you don’t want to work the pole though, you can use the Groupon to take any of the classes offered at Sacred. In addition to pole dancing they have Core Rhythms, a mixture of Asian, Afro-Caribbean and African dance styles, heated yoga and pilates. If you miss the Groupon but you’re still curious, you can try any two classes at the studio for $20 as a newcomer.
Follow Fikriyyah as she tried to stay moving this winter at @MrsSuperHarbor
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