KEEP AU S TIN WELL
Cardio Choreography Fun Fitness Moves from the Butler Community School BY ROXANNE WILSON
W
ith Dancing With The Stars twirling towards finale week and So You Think You Can Dance choreographing its way into a new summer season, the fitness frenzy is all about dance. Before you sit on the couch and watch the action play out on screen, break a sweat and hone your boogie skills at the Ballet Austin Butler Community School. Located downtown, one block from city hall, BCS’s purpose is to engage, educate and empower people of all skill levels, economic and cultural backgrounds to adopt healthy lifestyles through dance and regular physical activity. With a wide variety of class selections, including jazz, modern, hiphop, Broadway fit, hula and more (many of which provide introductory and advanced skill level options), I was eager to dive in fearlessly. Upon entering, I could see that Butler was fresh and full of life, with a reception in progress on the first floor, professional dancers practicing in an upstairs studio, and Cookie Ruiz, Ballet Austin’s executive director, giving a tour of the facility. Hip Hop Dance was in full swing so I channeled my So You Think You Can Dance viewing knowledge and took a turn at it. The class consisted of men, women and even teens. The instructor, who looked like Lacy from DWTS and SYTYCD, started us out with a pretty intense ten-minute warm-up to get our bodies stretched and ready to go. But before we started into hip-hop dance, we did sit-ups and push-ups until our abs and arms were fatigued. With the hard part out of the way, it was time to jive. Usher’s newest single filled the room and our instructor began teaching us eight count dance moves. As we stopped and started and repeated the moves, sweat started dripping down my brow—I was getting a circuit workout. My brain was also getting exercise as
I memorized the moves and matched them to the music. Although I was in a room of strangers, we felt like we were all in it together and started to chat a bit during class. The atmosphere made for an unintimidating foray into hip-hop for everyone. The instructor would say, “Pretend you are Usher’s back up dancers… and 5-6-7-8.” That’s all we needed; our game faces turned on and we drilled through the choreography. There is something about accomplishing a dance routine that provokes Baby’s giddy victory moves after Johnny teaches her how dance the first time (in Dirty Dancing) out of me. I found myself doing a version of that victory sashay when we completed the counts. And I wasn’t alone. Before I knew it the class was over and a group of young ballerinas entered the room. When I walked out I not only felt hip and happy, I also knew my body just received a great workout. The one tweak I would suggest is that the instructor uses a microphone. The base-thumping jams made it difficult to hear her cues. If you are looking to shape up you life with some spicy steps, the Butler Community School is a great place to do it. They offer a bevy of classes to choose from, interesting people to meet and a guaranteed workout. For the flexibility to customize your dance or fitness schedule, purchase a BCS Class-Card. Through the use of a Class-Card, you can participate in any or all of the BCS dance and fitness classes. Watch my hip-hop moves in action at www.austinlifestylemagazine.com Ballet Austin Butler Community School | www.balletaustin.org Roxanne Wilson is a Jazzercise instructor and franchisee Follow Roxanne on Facebook www.facebook.com/RoxanneWilsonOnline or Twitter @RoxanneWilson.com
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KEEP AU S TIN WELL
Active Beauty Secrets
Tips to keep you looking polished under the summer sun
BY ROCHELLE RAE
I
love summer and everything that goes along with it: boating on Lake Travis, canoeing on Lady Bird Lake and sipping fruity drinks on a patio. But let’s face it, what is summer really all about? In Texas, it’s sweat. Though we would love to spend our time relaxing in the sun and cooling off with a splash in the pool, unfortunately most of us still have to work, run errands and dash to appointments – all in triple digit weather. We can be in a full sweat by the time we walk from the house to the car; and if you're running from the office to the store getting in and out of the sauna we call transportation, you might as well bring a change of clothes. So how do you survive a long, hot summer without looking like a hot mess? Here are my top five summertime beauty secrets. #1 Start with a primer. It may seem like an extra step in an already busy morning, but you’ll be happy you took the extra twenty seconds. A primer provides a smooth, matte surface for you to apply your makeup and extends the wear. Look for a primer with SPF for added protection. UV rays cause 90 percent of sunspots, wrinkles and other signs of aging. #2 Lighten up your makeup routine. Skip the heavy foundation and opt for a lightweight, oil-free, tinted moisturizer. Look for products with zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. Zinc oxide is insoluble in water so it will help the product stay on even when you sweat. It also has anti-inflammatory properties, which can help calm your skin on a scorching hot day. Titanium dioxide is a super-concentrated pigment so you need very little to get great coverage. It is also the most pure and effective sun protection – an important step in any Austinite’s daily cosmetic regimen. #3 Go for a bold splash of color on your lips. The hottest trend this summer is super saturated lips in a bright fruit cup of colors, with the citrus shades being the biggest hit of the season. Think orange,
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tangerine and apricot (see A*Style Beauty for AL’s suggestions). Paired with super bronzed cheek and eye colors, it is the perfect way to look cool and confident amid the heat. #4 Let’s talk bronzer. You may not be spending your days basking in the sun, but why not look like you have been? Choose a bronzer shade close to your natural skin tone. One shade or two darker than yours will give you the natural, healthy glow of a nice summer vacation, without a lifetime of sun damage. Go too dark and you may end up looking dirty or splotchy; never go darker than you would actually get on a vacation to the beach. Avoid shimmery bronzers which tend to look fake and are more difficult to blend smoothly. Apply bronzer to the areas of your skin where you naturally tan first – for instance: your cheeks, tops of cheekbones, forehead, nose and chin. If exposed, I also like to apply it to the chest and shoulders. Finish off with a pop of a pink blush on the apples of your cheeks to complete the sun-kissed look. #5 Don’t leave home without blotting papers. I can’t live without them. They are cheap, convenient and easy to use. I suggest stashing them in places you frequent, like your purse and car. To remove excess oil and perspiration on your face, just press a sheet or two on your skin to get rid of shine. You can dust on a bit of powder if needed, but always blot first to keep the powder from caking onto sweaty skin. A quick blot will leave you with a nice glow. My final words of advice: Go out and enjoy your summer, soak up the sun and don’t be afraid to sweat! Rochelle Rae is the creator and CEO of Rae Cosmetics, a heat-resistant mineral cosmetic line designed for active women. To learn more about her products visit www.raecosmetics.com.
Harvesting Community KEEP AU S TIN WELL
The benefits of collective gardening BY DANI SLABAUGH
I
have a vision of Austin to share and it involves your front yard. As I pass through town, I find myself daydreaming about a different landscape, a drastic change in how families use their land. I fantasize about sloping yards terraced with lemon, apple and fig trees. Just beneath their canopies are shrubs of pomegranates and artichokes surrounded by lettuces and carrots. Along the sunny walkway leading up to my neighborhood school, I envision tomatoes and cucumbers pulling heavy on the chain link fence - the children playing, learning and eating the delicious healthy veggies that cover their schoolyard. I dream about Austinites from all corners of the city picking greens for dinner as they head into their homes. Seem overly idealistic? Out of touch? Growing food in our communities with our families and neighbors doesn’t have to be overwhelming or backbreaking. It is a fantastic solution to many of the problems caused by today’s food system and brings communities together in a way that is rarely experienced elsewhere. Anyone who has watched Food Inc. or read The Omnivore’s Dilemma knows that there are some deep-seated problems with our food. Our environment and our health have taken the hardest hit. Growing your own food is not a panacea, but it’s about as close to one as I can think of. As an alternative to our sputtering food system, or even just as a nutritious, delicious supplement to our regularly scheduled groceries, growing a food garden can be one of the most cost-effective, fun, educational, environmentally conscious and healthy things we can do. An established garden on a quarter of an acre can meet an astoundingly high percentage of a family’s food needs, but you don’t have to go all the way “back to the land” to reap the benefits. One or two raised beds can keep you in salad greens all winter or give you more okra in the summertime than you can keep up with (its OK, you may can it or give it to the neighbors!). One bed full of zucchini plants and you’ll be best buds with your whole block. In fact, one visitor to the farmers market claimed that he plowed his backyard less than two years ago and hasn’t been to the grocery store since. I became interested in food production as a young girl in my mother’s garden, eating beans off the vine and raspberries from the bushes. I learned how things grow, go to seed and pop up again the next year. Teaching gardening classes with high-risk AISD students, I’ve had kids lining up and bickering over carrots and spinach, jumping up and down about radishes and mesmerized by composting worms. Think your children won’t eat vegetables? Think again. Plants are talented teachers not just of gardening, but also of nutrition, ecosystems, biology, and even engineering the many systems that affect a garden. Instead of candy and gold stars, we get sugar snap peas and strawberries!
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Lawns, in terms of evolution of landscape, are extremely unnatural. Grasses naturally play the role of colonizing bare soil, but give way to shrubs and small trees, then larger trees and eventually a fully mature forest landscape, able to sustain itself. To keep our yards in their immature form, as lawns, the soil is soaked with herbicides and pesticides, much of which washes into our water supply, despite how well we follow directions. They take our time and money, with all the watering, mowing, and fertilizing and I have yet to met a soul who looks forward to spending an hour or more pacing their lawn in the 104 degree sun behind a big, hot, noisy machine. Rather than working against nature to maintain the perfect turf, I want to help people develop their perfect food “forest,” whatever that means for them and theirs; and as they graze on their front yard foliage, they will feel confident, comfortable and happy about their bounty, even if it’s just basil in a pot. Every tomato you pick from the trellis in the backyard is one that wasn’t flown in from far, far away, laced with all sorts of herbicides and pesticides, and maybe even some fish DNA! It’s a tomato that helped to restore the soil to health and balance. It’s also a tomato with a guaranteed human rights record and a whole lot of educational and nutritional value. Gather some like-minded friends, some adventurous neighbors or some curious children and start digging! Dani Slabaugh food-scapes Austin yards through her comapny, Yard to Table Gardens. For more information visit www.yardtotablegardens.com or find them on Facebook.