Four times a week, groupies gather at the Garrison Forest School dance studio in Owings Mills to follow Samantha Satchell's high-energy choreographed routines that combine hip hop, jazz, burlesque, African, Latin, belly dancing, swing, bhangra and just about every kind of dance style you can imagine. No participant gets left behind. "If you get lost," class T-shirts proclaim, "just shake something."
The fearless leader: A former cheerleader for the Baltimore Stallions, Satchell, 38, was teaching zumba and other dance classes at local health clubs when she decided she wanted to start her own kind of class, which would give her more freedom to mix things up, incorporate new moves and have more fun. She's been teaching Maverick Dance Party for almost a year at this location and about 100 women (and some men) turn up weekly for the hour-long classes.
Why they dance: Some group members describe themselves as "addicted" and "groupies." Jan Keadle, 53, says the class is so fun it's like a Saturday night dance party. Jill Hagan, 44, has been coming for two years and says she suffers from low self-esteem but Satchell "makes me feel beautiful and that I can do everything and be anything." Jackie Carbone, 25, says she loves the class because "it doesn't feel like I'm exercising — I could have the worst day and I leave here smiling." Colleen Wheat, 32, agrees: "You don't feel like you're at the gym but you get a great work out."
Link this story to your website:
Copy the above code and paste it into your webpage, blog or forum
Be the first one to comment on this news