Media Jump to Tune of ‘Baby Boogie Aerobics’

Some things just command attention.

Women in hipless leotards. Babies in diapers.

So, when the owner of a Northridge aerobics studio proclaimed the dawn of what she called “Baby Boogie Aerobics,” the media jumped.

Two television camera crews and two newspaper photographers were there when class began at 10 a.m. Tuesday. More were on the way. There were also four reporters to take down everything about the new craze.

To demonstrate, eight young mothers lined up in two rows behind instructor Susan Clark.

Let the Boogie Begin

Clark snuggled a baby doll up to her stomach. The others held real babies, age 6 weeks to 14 months.

Clark began giving orders that were part jazz improvisation, part drill instruction.

“You can either hold him up in your left arm or rest him on your thigh,” she said. “Three, four, five, six, five, four, three . . . . Bend your right knee. Spread your legs. Hold it in a deep straddle. Deep lunges. Take it down and swing the baby through your legs. Swing that baby.”

The babies bounced around good-naturedly. Most of them weren’t looking at themselves in the mirror the way their mothers were.

The ones that showed interest in anything were staring at the cameramen, who were stepping between the rows of mommies to shoot the babies.

Reporters Stand Around

Meanwhile, the four reporters stood around in the corners.

One male journalist left the room, looking disturbed, when the mommies got on their backs with their legs spread apart and put their babies on their stomachs and moved their hips up and down.

Out in a tiny front office, Marie Tomaso, the owner of Baby Boogie, dashed around excitedly in pink joggers and turquoise socks.

The phone rang a lot.

“Today’s media day, and we’re jammed,” she told one caller. “Put the TV on at 11:30. We’re going to be live.

“Is this what it’s like to be a celebrity?” she asked, hanging up.

Idea Takes Root

Tomaso said she had to go into business for herself when she lost her job as an accountant because she has a bad foot and can wear only gym shoes. She said she couldn’t obey the accountants’ dress code.

She decided on Baby Boogie Aerobics to help children, she said. The Baby Boogie Aerobics Center opened in October.

“The child who has Baby Boogie for the first two years of his life is less likely to put a cigarette to his mouth,” Tomaso said with a completely straight face.

That’s because it instills into the infants a sense of taking care of their bodies, she explained.

“We have a girl--before she wakes up her mother, she does a whole hour of aerobics,” Tomaso said. “Then she wakes up her mother to feed her.”

Never-Ending Cycle

There is no age limit. Babies go to class until they’re too heavy for their mommies to hold.

“Then we put them in their own classes,” Tomaso said. “They can do this forever.”

Back in the mirrored room, the oldest child was standing next to the instructor, doing her own aerobics. Her mother held the baby doll. Another baby was asleep on its mother’s hip, still bouncing to the beat. Another cried until his mother gave him a pacifier. The rest watched the cameramen.

Their mothers were beginning to wonder if the hour were going to go on forever.

“Does everybody feel it?” Clark asked. “Tell me when it starts to burn.”

“It’s burning,” they all said together.

“Tell me when it isn’t burning anymore. We’ll stop then.”

Someday, Tomaso predicted, scenes like this will be happening in Baby Boogie franchises all over the country.