Aerobic ‘Athletes’ Flex, Leap Among Shoppers

Originally, it was de rigueur enough just to jump up and down to music and sweat in a gym.

Then it became evident that some people do it better than others and that some people like to watch.

Voila! A spectator sport was born in the shopping malls of America. Competitive aerobics made it OK to strut in next to nothing and sweat the pounds away right out among the Sunday shoppers.

Several dozen aerobics competitors strutted their health and fitness over the weekend at the Sherman Oaks Galleria in the regional finals of the second National Aerobic Championship, sponsored by the makers of a sugar-free powdered soft drink and a host of fitness magazines.

The Galleria was a suitable venue for the sport. For several hours Sunday, shoppers lined the rails of its two balconies, caught up in the hypnotic show of pounding music, irrepressible smiles and effervescent bodies working out below on a portable wooden stage.

Around the stage, the perfectly molded competitors, who mostly seemed to be in their 20s and wore sequined stretch suits of fuchsia, turquoise, scarlet and black, jerked and jumped to the music even when they weren’t on stage.

As their names were called in the couples competition, a man and a woman would bound together to the stage, leaping and flexing excitedly and all the while emitting shrieks that sounded like something between the call of a wolf and the battle cry of an interior lineman for the Los Angeles Raiders. Invariably the call was answered by all the other competitors and many of the spectators in a chorus of shrieks.

Master of ceremonies Bess Motta, principal performer and choreographer of the “Twenty Minute Workout” television show, briefly interviewed each couple.

“How did you two start exercising together,” she asked the first four.

Three said in an exercise class and one just giggled.

The performances were straightforward. Jump, kick, leap. Jump, kick, leap. Over and over, faster and faster. Smile.

Competitive aerobics is so new that its sponsors are still defining the form. It’s not dance and it’s not gymnastics, they say. It’s calisthenics to music.

“We only allow two flash moves,” said judge Chris MacIntyre, editor-in-chief of Shape magazine. Flash--as in the movie “Flashdance”--moves are things like splits and ballet lifts. Gymnastic moves are also discouraged, she said.

Each several-minute routine is required to have the basics of exercise--push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks and kicks.

The problem for the competitors is how to choreograph pizazz into a sit-up.

“There is a fine line between aerobics and dancing,” said Andrina Carroll, who teaches aerobics at Matrix One of Encino.

Carroll and her partner, Alfanso Mellior, tried to solve the problem with a Latin rumba beat and vibrato body movements.

They were the local favorites. They got the loudest cheer and some of their friends threw roses and carnations on the stage after their routine.

But the judges picked Richard Blair and Marla Ericksen of Calgary, Canada. They had done their compulsory exercises cleanly and neatly and were showy but not flashy.

They will compete later in the year in the finals for prizes such as fitness wardrobes, ankle weights and health-spa vacations.

After leading all of the competitors together in a 10-minute session of rapid jumping jacks after the contest, Motta left the stage for a nearby shoe store and sat at a mirror several minutes to refresh her makeup.

Motta had her own opinion of what competitive aerobics is all about.

“I think basically what it is, is a forum for people who have been training in aerobics to show what they’re in training for,” Motta said. “I don’t think that we’ve gotten to that cutthroat competition yet, which I’m happy for. It’s a real friendly feeling.”

Still, the sport has a ways to go. Interior linemen for the Raiders don’t usually giggle when they are interviewed.