Where can local residents burn some serious calories before enjoying a calorie-packed Thanksgiving dinner while also doing something to benefit the local food bank?
Try the 19th annual Jazzercise class from 9 to 10 a.m. Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 27, at the Silverton Community Center, 421 S. Water St.
The admission is $3 or three cans of foods that will be donated to Silverton Area Community Aid or SACA, the local food bank.
“This class gives participants the chance to do a tremendous amount of good for their community and for themselves,” said Andi Morgan, the Jazzercise instructor. “The energy in the room is always incredible. We help neighbors that are less fortunate and burn some calories before a big dinner.”
A woman of action, Morgan is a whirlwind to her dance students. Besides teaching Jazzercise classes, she is an educational specialist with the Oregon Department of Education, working in the social science curriculum. She has both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She taught history and economics at Silverton High School for 23 years and served as the speech coach.
Her goal each November is helping put food on the shelves for SACA so its volunteers can distribute it to families in need. The current economic situation has brought more families to SACA’s door seeking either financial assistance or food boxes.
Even in past years, Morgan saw the food bank get hit hard during the holiday season. That’s why she’s continuing the Jazzercise Thanksgiving Day fundraiser begun by former instructor Terre Banks.
The program created 19 years ago keeps getting bigger and better each year. Last year, Morgan said more than 130 people put on their workout gear and danced for an hour on Thanksgiving Day.
“We would really like to exceed that this year,” Morgan said. “It was so crowded there was room only on the stage!”
People who attend this special event or any Jazzercise class will immediately notice this isn’t your 1970s Jazzercise class, although Morgan does sneak in Olivia Newton-John’s Let’s Get Physical from time-to-time.
The music is today’s music, though there is an occasional set with the popular oldies. Morgan fancies a screaming guitar and a little hip hop thrown in.
She gives a dire warning with a pronounced chuckle, “Don’t mention leggings. We don’t do those anymore. When Judy Shepherd Missett started Jazzercise 40 years ago, leggings and spandex were the thing. Now we just wear what is comfortable and the music is going to be loud so get use to it.”
There are more men in the crowd, too. Greg Johnson, 58, is a big fan of Jazzercise and Morgan.
“The energy is great, the movements are fun, the music is good and loud, and I am a lot more flexible than I’ve been in years,” Johnson said, adding he has taken Jazzercise classes for two years.
Heather Yates, 27, is back in Jazzercise action after taking time off to have her baby, Brooklyn, in July.
“The class is always different, always changing and is always fun,” Yates said. She is a member of the four-year club.
Jackie Niemeyer, 52, is rather succinct in her response about why she goes to Jazzercise.
“It fulfills my childhood fantasy of being a Broadway show dancer. I hide in the corner and pretend I am dancing on Broadway,” she said.
Janet Anderson loves her family but finds an escape through Jazzercise. “It is a great way to stay in shape, relieve stress and it is really fun to just sing and dance,” Anderson said. “The class is for all ages, and we have both a former professional ballerina and a marathon runner with us.” Anderson has been involved in the dance class since her son, Eliott, now 25, was 1 year old.
“It has changed so much,” Anderson said. “The music is really current, but the steps are the same. I know what to do regardless of how the music changes, because a ‘grapevine’ is a ‘grapevine’ even in different routines.”
Morgan wants people to know that the class has evolved over the years and is designed for all comers – high impact people who seem to fly around like a ball of fire or others who barely seem to be moving.
“We have high, low, and intermediate impact – whatever you want it to be,” she said. She loves seeing the occasional high school boy come in, thinking that the class will be a breeze. “They use muscles they seldom use, and leave out of breath but with a new respect for Jazzercise.”
Morgan invites everyone to squeeze into the community center Thanksgiving morning and “get a big workout with us before we pig out.”
