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Dancing off pounds to a Latin beat
Danielle Dreilinger
Michelle Rubiera leads the Baila Cardio class at East Somerville's Edgerly gym.
It's a routine for countless city dwellers: Work's done, time to hit the gym. But though the instructor at East Somerville's Edgerly School was gorgeous and toned, the dozen attendees at "Baila Cardio" didn't fit the Spandex-and-yoga pants image.A mother and daughter wearing oversized shirts did arm raises to a fast Latin music beat, turning so they could high-five on the upswing. An older woman boogied to the beat of her own conguero. No one batted an eye when a reporter joined in, wearing long sleeves and jeans. Everyone shook their hips as best they could.
That was the whole idea. As Somerville hits the midpoint of the mayor's first annual Fitness Challenge, public health officials are trying to reach residents who would never go to the gym. High on that list: the city's Latino community.
There's only too much evidence of the need, said Lisa Brukilacchio, director of the Somerville Community Health Agenda, part of the Cambridge Health Alliance. The alliance's Latino patients with diabetes have worse blood sugar levels than their white counterparts. Nationally, 50.4 percent of children growing up in primarily Spanish-speaking households are obese.
Eduardo Rosa, 42, manager of the Påo de Açucar Brazilian market, saw the problem in Portuguese-speaking homes as well. "I was skinny when I came to the States," he said, patting his belly. In Brazil, "we bike a lot, we walk a lot. You take the train, you take the bus — so it makes you lose weight because there's no air conditioning." Here, people come home too tired to exercise.
To compound the problem, health advocates try to target mothers as the engines of family change but Latina adults shy away from anything called "aerobics," said instructor Michelle Rubiera. "They'll automatically think it's hard."
With all these factors in mind, health providers begged for exercise options that their patients would do. "They would walk and they would dance," Brukilacchio said.
Hence: a salsa dance class with a high-energy twist. Dubbed "Baila Cardio" by its regulars, it started in a Cambridge Health Alliance waiting room over two years ago.
"Dancing can be a major workout," Rubiera said. A CHA employee, she teaches Latin dance for a number of health organizations and believes in their ability to reach the community.
"It doesn't feel like exercising," said Odette Esselman of Somerville, cooling down after class. "It's fun," and familiar, she said, since her family is Portuguese. She loved a previous session's field trip to the Choices nightclub in Somerville. When she's dancing, "I don't care if they're married, they're old, they're fat," Esselman said. "And the women don't get mad because they know I just want to dance."
The Somerville class has an additional advantage over the gym: "It's cheaper!" said Odette's daughter Victoria, 13 — only $15 for the entire nine weeks. Is there a less expensive option? "I haven't heard of any, but see, I'm not one to check the magazines," she said.
This spring there was one free option: Latinas Living Better, a weekly Latin dance class for girls in grades 5–7. Like Baila Cardio, the claims aims to provide "culturally sensitive ways of exercising," said Tufts student coordinator Namibia Lebron-Torres, who works under the CHA's supervision. In addition, the group sometimes has health workshops and cooking sessions where they make, say, rice and beans with brown rice and less oil.
CHA piloted Latinas Living Better with girls last year and adult women in 2008, Brukilacchio said, and found the participants started to exercise more frequently and eat more fruits and vegetables. Connected to that grant, a Latino youth group created an obesity/diabetes prevention video with Somerville Community Access Television.
In addition, 42 people are enrolled in the Recreation Department's fitness challenge zumba class - Latin-inspired aerobics - mayor's spokesman Jackie Rossetti wrote in an e-mail.
However, funding issues limit the impact and availability of classs like these. The Recreation Department runs two to three Baila Cardio sessions per year. Latinas Living Better goes on hiatus from May through September.
It makes a difference: Two women interviewed seven months after the original LLB intervention had started to slip back into less-healthy habits. "These participants stated they 'missed the support of a group to exercise together,'" Brukilacchio wrote in an e-mail.
Maybe team sports would help? If the city really wants to help the Latino community get in shape, Rosa thought, they should open indoor soccer and volleyball courts.
Latinas Living Better is scheduled to start up again in October; contact NamibiaLT@gmail.com to sign up. For information about Baila Cardio, contact the city Recreation Department at 617-625-6600, ext. 2980 or check for "Salsa Dancing" on the Mayor's Fitness Challenge calendar.
Contact Danielle at somervillescene@gmail.com.
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