By Heather Matthews
Staff Writer

Tracie Hawkins and Jose Antonio Saucedo, teachers at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio, located at 99 Elm St., Manchester, dance between lessons at the school. Dancing can help participants improve their posture, lose weight and alter their body shape.

Do A Little Dance
Bill Wynn said fitness was important to him, and he has a gym membership. However, he doesn’t use it regularly. Instead, he gets most of his exercise from dancing.

More and more often, people like Wynn are opting out of the traditional health club memberships for activities that are more fun, and more social, than visiting a gym. Alternative exercises like rock climbing and dancing have become popular breaks from the treadmill and weights.

“If it’s something like rock climbing, ballroom dancing, people are passionate about it, and it’s easy to stick with,” said Wynn.

Wynn runs the Manchester franchise of Arthur Murray dance school, and has been dancing for more than 25 years – surprising given he first started dancing as a joke.

“It was a dare,” he said. “The women I had been working with bet me and my male coworkers that we wouldn’t take lessons. I was the only one who stuck it out.”

But, not only are these activities easier to stick with, said Wynn, they are great exercise.

“It’s the greatest thing,” said Wynn. “Dancing works your entire body. You get your aerobic, cardio and toning all in one. That, and it’s easy to stick with.”

Wynn said, in his experience, most people only go to the gym once or twice a week, but he has students that attend lessons and events at his studio four to five times a week.

“If you were trying to get eight to 12 hours of exercise a week, you couldn’t last in a gym,” he said.

Dancing, said Wynn, has helped several of his students undergo significant changes in body shape and weight.

It has also helped improve his student’s posture, and because of the competitive aspect of dance it can also be very motivational.

But, for Wynn, there is something else that motivates him to dance, too.

“Women like men who know how to dance, and that’s not a bad thing either,” he said. “It’s a very athletic and physical sport, and having a women in your arms and moving to the music as one is great. And if you can stay in shape and loose weight at the same time, that’s a bonus.”

Wynn, who met his wife through dancing, said that dancing also helps both men and women learn how to improvise.

“The man has to learn how to maneuver with the woman in his arms, and figure out what steps he is going to use,” he said. “The woman has to learn how to follow the steps. Dancing keeps you very alert.”

Life On The Edge
Corey Hebert, like Wynn, has a gym membership, but rarely uses it. For Hebert, his gym membership is a sort of back-up plan, used when he doesn’t have the time to hang from his finger and toes on a simulated rock face.

Hebert, 31, runs Vertical Dreams, an indoor climbing gym. An avid climber, Hebert said he has always wanted to turn his climbing hobby into a career, and nine years ago he did just that. Vertical Dreams, located in the Waumbac Mill on Commercial Street, boasts the state’s tallest indoor climbing wall. Reaching 70 feet high, the wall stretches from the second to the fifth floor of the mill building.

For Hebert, climbing provides freedom, exercise, a chance to meet people, and the ability to enjoy the outdoors. Although climbing at Vertical Dreams does not help his patrons get outside, the company’s three climbing areas allow visitors to come together and get fit.

Those interested in using the climbing walls don’t need to make a long-time commitment to the sport, either. Unlike most traditional gyms, there is no membership fee, or card.

“They just have to come down, just show up. They don’t even have to make an appointment,” said Hebert.

There are no age restrictions to climbing, said Hebert. Anyone can enjoy climbing’s benefits, but those under 18 need to have a waiver signed by a guardian.

“We cater to beginners, young and old,” he said. “Anybody can do this sport.”

While there are beginner lessons offered at Vertical Dreams, Hebert said climbing is a self-motivated, selfstarting sport and no lessons are necessary to improve, or go on to the next level of climbing.

“It’s a self sport,” he said. “Each time you come back you are going to be better than you were the last time. People can get better on their own.”

Erin Bostich, 12, who has been climbing for about a year, said the activity allows her to better herself each time she goes.

“It’s just one of those things that you get better at all the time,” she said. “With running you’re always stuck at one point, just at the same level, but this you can get better at.”

Although climbing is a sport most people enjoy on an individual level, Vertical Dreams has a climbing team for teens that allows for participation in statewide competitions.

Lily Hallett, 13, of Bow, has only been climbing at Vertical Dreams for a couple months, but is already a member of the team. Hallett said she always climbed trees, and anything else she could get her hands on, but climbing at Vertical Dreams presented her with more challenges. Rock climbing, like dancing, said Hallett, works the entire body, as well as the mind.

“It’s very good exercise,” she said. “It works every muscle in your body, but it’s also very mental, and helps with strategizing. It’s exhausting. I have very sore forearms most of all, but I’m pretty tired straight through after.”

Both Vertical Dreams and the Arthur Murray Dance studio will be featured at the made in New Hampshire Expo April 7 to 9. For more information on Vertical Dreams, visit www.verticaldreams.com. For more information on the Arthur Murray Dance studio, call 624-6857. For more information on the Made In NH Expo, visit businessnhmagazine.com.