Lisa & Louis' Cardio Ballroom Classes

A class titled cardio ballroom, taught by former "Dancing With the Stars" dancer Louis Van Amstel, offers especially intense dance workouts. Van Amstel and actress Lisa Rinna, his dance partner on the show, came up with the concept -- it's structured like an aerobics class, no partners needed. Van Amstel leads this high-energy, hourlong workout at Anisa's School of Dance in Sherman Oaks. It begins with a warm-up, then segues into basic salsa, cha-cha and jive steps, progressively adding variations, all to speaker-busting levels of Mariah Carey, Cher, Gwen Stefani and ABBA.

"We realized that ballroom works on a fitness level," Van Amstel says after a recent class, his shirt and pants soaked with sweat. "It's the best way to make people lose weight because you're not really here for a fitness class, you're here to dance."

The class also satisfies dancing jones for people who can't or don't want to get a partner with whom to salsa the night away.

Van Amstel, who recently released a set of dance DVDs, says he eventually wants to have a studio and teach ballroom and other dance forms.

In the meantime, in the few weeks they've been running, the cardio ballroom classes are still growing, he says. "We're trying to bring back fitness through enjoying life."

During the course of the cardio ballroom class, expressions change from furrowed brows to ear-to-ear grins as steps are mastered and inhibitions disappear. Vanessa Foster of Beverly Hills calls it one of the best workouts she's had -- and she has a trainer three times a week. "That never comes close to this," she says.

Jeannie Stein- LA Times November 5 2007