By ELKE GOVERTSEN
My body kind of hates me.
I spend a lot of time at my computer. A LOT. So much that I started to turn into an inflexible crustacean. Oula, wiggles and shakes and grinds and makes me move. And now after a few months, I no longer move like a lobster. Now I am a total flygirl backup dancer. Or close enough.
My friend Spider McKnight (of Six Pony Hitch) told me to try it. I was skeptical. Exercise and I had been broken up for a while. I was not ready to date this wacky dance program.
But, I tried. Again. And again.
Oula is dancing. Oula is working out. Oula is social. The best description I can come up with is that it is kind of like Exercising and Going Dancing In College hooked up and had a baby.
Best of all, it is all Missoula-grown.
Yes, OULA was started here, in MissOULA, by Kali Lindor. And when she joined forces with Crystal Smith, pow!
There are instructors and classes all over town (48 classes a week at last count). Now this “dance mania for the soul” is spilling out of our little valley and into other communities.
I am a total business dork, particularly branding and community. I am placing my bet right now that soon Missoula will be known as the “birthplace of Oula.” It has huge potential. The community they have built is amazing—all businesses should take a lesson in how they take their service out into the community and their members’ lives.
This next sentence sounds dramatic, I know, but it is true… my life is better since I started Oula.
I am happier. Healthier. Sexier. Fun-er. Definitely a better dancer and also now know the words to all kinds of pop songs. And I sing them really loud. During Oula. And sometimes in the car.
You can find me on Saturdays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, singing, dancing, laughing, sweating, and shimmying at my beloved Downtown Dance Collective… but check out the Oula Fitness website for one of their 48 classes a week all over town.
Try it, at least a few times… you will get the steps. And be hooked.
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Read more from one of Missoula’s favorite Mamas About Town, Elke Govertsen. And check out Missoula Children and Nature Network, Active Moms Missoula, and the Make it Missoula Business section.
Share your mama (and papa!) stories below. We promise… Elke will respond!
Visit the Mama About Town archive.
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Elke Govertsen is the publisher of Mamalode which is a magazine and website for area moms. When not juggling her family, business, and the laundry (disclosure – there is no laundry being done whatsoever), Elke tries to eek out time to write, do yoga, and read like a fiend.