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Home » Fitness » Bustin’ Moves – Washington City Paper (blog)

How a homegrown fitness class became one of go-gos enduring legacies.

Go Go Fitness

Shortly after 9 a.m. on a dank spring Saturday, in the brightly lit basketball court of the Glenarden Community Center, the women of Go-Go Fitness are working a move known as the Little Benny.

Go-Go Fitness is a dance workout set to popular go-go songs, and at this particular moment, speakers flanking the elevated stage are blasting Rare Essences Rock This Party Feat. Killa Cal. Everyone is doing the step named after go-go icon Anthony Little Benny Harley, a coordinated movement that instructor Danette Dani Tucker later describes as a straight crankin movetwo-step knee-up WOOP to the right, then same to the left and a rock, rock dip in the hips.

Tucker and her partner, Erica Berry Wilson, launched Go-Go Fitness during the winter of 2012. The first class, at Heat Haven on Good Hope Road SE, consisted of Tucker and her scheduler along with a total of six students. By the second week we had 15, says Tucker. And by the third week, we were sold out and looking for a larger space.

These days, Go-Go Fitness offers 10 to 15 classes per week throughout the DMV, with most classes in Prince Georges County. Go-Go Fitness has also traveled, with classes in Fayetteville, Miami, Seattle, and Puerto Rico. Theyve released three exercise-at-home DVDs. And this year, on its fifth anniversary, Go-Go Fitness was honored with a D.C. City Council resolution.

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Tucker, 47, grew up in Southeast Washington, steeped in go-go culture. Were a three-generation go-go familymy dad and his brothers, and then me and my kids, she says. As a child, she studied at Bernice Hammonds Northeast Academy of Dance. Years later, dance fitness proved to be Tuckers preferred workout, from 80s Jazzercise all the way up to 90s-and-beyond Zumba. For a while she taught Zumba.The problem was, there was never any go-go music in those classes, she says.

Most everyone Tucker knew preferred to work out to go-go. If a go-go head was working out, 10 times out of 10 they would be listening to go-go music, she says.

As Tucker developed Go-Go Fitness, her inspiration always went back to go-go founder Chuck Brown. Chuck made the music go on and on. That beat would just keep going, just like in Africa, and we would just keep dancing, old and young, men and women, childreneverybody. He would call out and we would respond. Thats go-go, she says.

I didnt do anything but take Chucks original formula and put it to dance fitness, Tucker continues. Thats what has made us popular. Our students dont think theyre coming to class. They think theyre coming to the go-go, just like when they were teenagers. They get their crews together and where the go-go at?

Many Go-Go Fitness regulars are past the stage in life when theyre good to hit the clubs for late-night shows. Were giving them the opportunity to go to a go-gonot at 1 a.m., not for four hours, cause we cant do that no more, says Tucker.

In a throwback to the historic Washington Coliseum holiday shows, Tucker occasionally schedules a two-hour holiday Crankfest celebrating specific go-go artists. The first, honoring Little Benny, was on Memorial Day 2013, at the Panorama Room in Southeast and drew 459 people. The following year, Team Familiars Donnell Floyd attended GGFs July 4th celebration of his contributions to go-go. They played all my music, and it was a great feeling to see that many people jubilantly exercising to music that I put together, says Floyd.

Floyds wife, Jennifer Floyd, is training to become a GGF instructor, and Donnell couldnt be happier about it. People excited about go-go music and using it for a positive thingnot just losing weight, but staying healthythats just great, he says. I think the go-go beat is the greatest beat in the world. The energy thats inside the beat, to me its incredible, so this application makes absolute perfect sense. I wish that I had thought of it.

Other go-go artists take a more active role in Go-Go Fitnessby actually taking the classes. What caught my interest was the beat that they was working out to, says Trouble Funks Big Tony Fisher, who as a GGF regular, lost nearly 40 pounds before his kidney transplant last year.

Id be lyin if I didnt say it wasnt hard work, but the way Dani do it, its fun, Fisher says. If you love go-go music, you dont look at it as work, or even working out. You almost look at it like its dancing.

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Nearly every GGF class features a Junkyard Band medley, some Little Benny & The Masters, Rare Essence, Huck-a-Bucks, Backyard Band, Experience Unlimited, and Chuck Brown. Tucker also draws on classic go-go dances, and theres a Beat Your Feet segment set to T.O.B.s Know Meee. Every class also features Michelle Obama timefor arms and shoulders, of course.

Fisher points to Tuckers inventive recasting of the Trouble Funk hit Lets Get Small as an example of her creativity. Shell take that song, and create a workout around it, and give it a whole different meaning, he says. I really think Go-Go Fitness is just another positive outlet for go-go, and its something that has potential to go all around the world.

To be sure, theres more go-go in Go-Go Fitness than its soundtrack. In go-go, the bands lead talkers provide the genres essential sense of community by leading call-and-response chants and by spotlighting various folks in the audience. Because there are several instructors for each GGF class, Tucker is free to work the room as a lead talker. Danette Dani Tucker instructs a class.Go Go Fitness

Sure, she calls out the usual fitness single-single-double directives, but there are also distinctly go-go styled shout-outs, including We got Upper Marlboro in the house, yall and Go head! I see you! On a recent Saturday, she admonished the classyall better wake upbut also made them laugh: Go-go songs all long, she said, but we aint tryin to kill you.

Tucker addresses the class as go-go family, and there are plenty of opportunities for the family to talk back. Danette has taken go-gos call and response and used that to get the class involved, says Wilson, who serves as Go-Go Fitness Chief Operating Officer. In go-go, you want to hear from the people youre partying with, and in this case, you want to hear from the people youre exercising with.

For Big Tony, Tucker is more than just a lead talker. I call her my go-go motivator, he says. Dani is like a lead talker, hype person and the coach, all wrapped together. She knows how to bring out the best in you. I would leave that place sometimes soaking wet, and shed be sayin, You alright, Big T?

One of the reasons I feel that Go-Go Fitness is so important is that I think that we, as blacks in particular, we really dont have a healthy diet and a lot of us dont exercise the way we should, continues Big Tony. I think Dani found a wonderful strategy to get more of us into exercise without making it feel like exercise, and that gives go-go a positive look.

Tuckers role as lead talker is just one of the ways that the classes echoes the community feel of go-go shows. Go-Go Fitness no-judgement zone attracts a wide range of fitness levelsbig women in baggy sweats and lithe women in tight spandex, and some big women in tight spandex, too. Some regulars come with their mothers and daughters, too. On a recent Saturday, one woman clutched an inhaler for the duration of the class. When another woman couldnt continue, Tucker chatted with her until she was ready to go again.

It doesnt matter what size you are in here, says Tanya Beverly, 54, of Forestville. Since I started, Ive lost 56 pounds. Beverly grew up in Southeast, and back in the day she used to enjoy free go-go shows in the parks. I grew up with Chuck. I still love all Chucks music, she says. Now I can dance to Chuck Brown here.

Even before Browns death in 2012, local media has occasionally questioned the longevity of the music he created. While its true that many go-go bands dont play as often as they once did, and that too many local venues and radio stations dont adequately support the music, adaptability has always been a crucial aspect of go-go culture. Go-go-driven gospel animates many local church services on Sunday mornings, and Go-Go Fitness is yet another example of the durability of the go-go groove.

Go-go is part of our DNA now, says class regular Camille Franklin, 47, who grew up in Ivy City and followed Chuck and Rare Essence for years. Go-Go Fitness just helps to keep it alive.

Along with getting its go-go family in shape, sustaining its precious culture is of paramount importance to Go-Go Fitness. With the ever-changing demographic of this area and gentrification, I think go-go has been the one thing Washingtonians can hang onto as part of our identity, says Wilson. Go-go does carry a sense of nostalgia for many of us. It reminds us of the good times in the city, what we had, and what we should be proud of.

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Bustin' Moves - Washington City Paper (blog)

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