Charlotte County Florida Weekly

A workout that’s uplifting

Gospel music provides lively background for aerobics, line dancing



ELISSA EUBANKS / COX NEWSPAPERS

ELISSA EUBANKS / COX NEWSPAPERS “It’s a great stress reliever,” says Delores Lee-Furlow of her gospelcise class. “We have great fun, and it has been great fellowship.” With about 30 other women, Lee-Furlow attends class biweekly.

On a recent Wednesday evening in a back room of a suburban Atlanta recreation center, the women of the Word of Faith Family Worship Cathedral in Austell, Ga., are learning a new way to shake off the devil.

“There are no notes on this one, it’s so easy,” Carolyn Patterson says as she demonstrates a shoulder-shimmy-andfoot stomping routine known as the sanctified slide.

This slide isn’t electric, but it is the perfect send off for the 30 women dressed in T-shirts, sweats and gym shoes who have come for the spiritual sweatfest that is gospelcise. The hourlong, biweekly class is a combination of line dancing and aerobic moves set to gospel music. It is designed to provide a spiritual lift and a 200- to 600-calorieburning workout.

“It’s a great stress reliever,” says Delores Lee-Furlow, 45. “I knew it would be churchy because it is called gospelcise, but I wasn’t really sure what it was. I’ve been pleasantly surprised. We have great fun, and it has been great fellowship.”

When gospelcise first appeared in the early part of the decade, it popped up at trendy gyms such as Crunch Fitness. It had a fairly short run before other dance-based workouts such as pole dancing and Bollywood bhangra squeezed it out of rotation. Recently, gospelcise has resurfaced in churches across the country — its growth fueled by women in predominantly African- American congregations looking for a fun way to get fit.

“The purpose is to burn calories, but also to inspire a spiritual environment and bring nonbelievers of the community into the church,” said Patterson, founder of Takin’ It Step by Step. She has been teaching gospelcise for four years since linking up with Cleveland, Ohio-based instructor Belinda Haywood. Patterson advertised at Word of Faith, but she opted to hold the class at a nearby community center for space reasons and to provide a welcoming atmosphere to nonchurchgoers.

Each session begins with a warm-up of routines from the previous week. One evening, Patterson announces they will videotape the next session for her Web site. “The Lord says always be ready, so that’s why we want to do this,” Patterson reassures the class as some get a wide-eyed look that says they would prefer to do anything other than have their missteps documented on video.

The women, just back from a holiday break, are a little rusty, stumbling over steps and giggling when they miss. But by the second run, they’re on track. When they switch to the Baltimore, a dance set to “You Don’t Know” by gospel singer Kierra Kiki Sheard, their confidence is high.

“Oh, that’s easy,” one student says as Patterson breaks down the steps.

“We got this one,” another student confirms.

Patterson mixes up the music between gospel and secular to keep things balanced. After each class, she distributes handouts of the steps and song selections. In the first week, she also gave out nutritional guidelines from a local fitness consultant.

“I think it is important to remember that a combination of diet and exercise is the key to good health,” Patterson says. “You can’t have one without the other.”

For about 60 percent of the women, her class is the only workout and fitness plan they are getting, she says.

The end of the warm-up sends several women rushing to sip water and cool down before learning the Obama shuffle, a routine named in honor of the president. A pivot turn into a cha-cha keeps tripping them up.

“Do not stop!” Patterson says. “Keep going. Keep going with the flow with a smile.”

The class is headed into overtime, but the women don’t seem to notice as they move into the final routine of the evening. They finish several near-flawless executions of the sanctified slide, for which the only direction, spoken in the lyrics of the music, is to “walk in the spirit, shake the devil off, stomp Satan lower, and dance like David danced.”

Uplifted by their success, the women applaud, then gather in a circle at the center of the room. Patterson invites prayer requests. Two women ask for support in finding jobs. One asks that prayers be said for her pregnant daughter. Another asks the same for a father who has fallen ill.

Lee-Furlow volunteers to lead the prayer. The women bow their heads and finish with an emphatic “Amen.”

For more information on gospelcise, contact Carolyn Patterson at 1-866-457- 7837 or visit the Web at www.letstep. com. ¦

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