OREM — Legacy Dance Academy calls its weight-loss class Brazilian Aerobics, but with all the dancing, chatting and high-fives going on, the workout could easily be confused for a party.
Legs and arms are all over the place during the hour-long session, which mixes moves from five traditional Latin American dances to a spicy beat. Turn, jump, clap, twist and do it all over again.
"You leave feeling inspired," said Diane Mangum, 43, who has only missed three classes since she discovered the Orem studio last fall. "If you came to class worried, you leave feeling up. It's just exhilarating."
Mangum laughed as she stumbled over a new step. Once she found the beat, her neighbor gave her a congratulatory grin and a pat on the back. None of the regulars knew one another before signing up, but now the group exchanges hugs before they pack up their sneakers and head out the door.
"Latin culture in general is just such a close culture," said Provo resident Dane Gray, 47, after his workout Saturday. "I think the music and the dancing just rub off on us. It's not like an aerobics class at a traditional gym, where you come, you sweat and you leave without talking to anyone. We're like family."
The only dancing Gray did before he started taking classes at Legacy Dance Academy was of the do-si-do variety, but, despite his inexperience with Latin dance, he said it didn't take long to catch on to the routines.
"It's like country line dance — Latin style," said David Montecinos, the Orem studio's artistic director and the brain behind the innovative workout. "Most people just need someone in the front to follow."
Montecinos is not Brazilian, but he shakes his hips like a true native. He claims his heart is "split in two" between Brazil, whose culture he studied during school at Brigham Young University, and his home country, Bolivia.
He got the idea for the aerobics class while he was studying at BYU's English Language Center. He learned traditional dances like the samba and the boi bumba from a group of Brazilian friends.
"Every day when we finished class, we would put on the radio and dance," Montecinos said. "People thought we were crazy but we had a good time."
After a while, he said, the men started to notice they were losing weight from all the dancing.
"I should have stopped then," Montecinos said, laughing. "I'm losing so much weight, I'm going to disappear."
Both Montecinos and his sister Amanda, who co-owns Legacy Dance Academy with him, have day jobs in addition to running the small studio. He works as a stockbroker and she is a vice president for a translation company. Right now, Legacy Dance Academy, which features classes in a variety of Latin American folk dances in addition to Brazilian Aerobics, is more of a passion than a profitable business, they said.
It wasn't until the two left Bolivia that they became interested in folk dancing.
"In Bolivia I was more into disco and rock and roll," Amanda Montecinos said. "Once I left, though, I started to identify more with my country and to be proud of the things we did there. Now I want to share these dances so people here can know who we are."
Legacy Dance Academy is located at 375 E. 800 South in Orem. For class schedules, call 801-426-7773.
E-mail: estuart@desnews.com