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Different Strokes | |
| By The Associated Press Exercise doesn't have to be all grunts and sweat. New Yorkers can keep fit the beautiful way, with a ballet workout under the auspices of the New York City Ballet. The regimen, performed to classical, jazz and contemporary music, promotes firmer abdominals, better defined arms, more elongated musculature, strength, and agility. It concentrates on muscle groups most people are concerned about: hips, thighs, and gluteus. The aim is to improve flexibility, posture, muscle tone and definition, say the organizers. Classes are taught by dancers from the ballet with assistance from instructors of the co-sponsoring New York Sports Clubs. The workouts were conceived by Peter Martins, ballet master-in-chief, Melinda Roy, a principal dancer, and Peter Frame, former principal and faculty chairman at the American Ballet School. "The ballet workout combines artistic grace with endurance and provides a challenging and inspiring exercise program for all fitness levels," says Anne Marie Miller, master exercise physiologist at NYSC. Across the river in Brooklyn, N.Y., it's a circus at the Berkeley Carroll School. Children keep in shape by walking on stilts, riding unicycles, balancing on tightropes, juggling balls, balancing peacock feathers, spinning plates in the air, and performing group tumbling acts. "They even jump through hoops," says Pat Lesser, physical education specialist who coaches first-grade through fourth-grade youngsters at the co-ed prep school. The school uses circus equipment to teach fitness and improve children's skill in movement, flexibility, eye-hand coordination, balance, dexterity and tracking. "It's a great way to teach fitness," Lesser says. "They can use equipment they normally would never get to use and they can see their own progress and improvement on the equipment. --- For information about the New York City Ballet Workout, contact Ann Marie Miller at (212) 246-6700, ext. 201. Copyright 1996 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | |