A Dancer Who Stepped Over to Aerobics
Southern California gym rats are fortunate to have some of the finest fitness instructors anywhere.
There’s Kathy Stevens, Madonna Grimes, Jeffrey Scott, Kendell Hogan and Keli Roberts in the Los Angeles area. And in Orange County there’s Linda McHugh, Jay Blahnik, Norma Schetman and Rob Glick, just to name a few.
Now there’s one more, and this person, in my opinion, goes right to the top of the list.
Petra Kolber moved to town last month from New York City. She’s teaching three classes a week at SportsClub LA (1835 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles). Kolber has starred in 10 videos for Reebok. Her latest, “Step Reebok Rhythm and Moves,” was named one of the top 10 videos of the decade by Shape magazine in January. And for the second consecutive year, she is a nominee for IDEA’s Fitness Instructor of the Year award and in 1999 was selected Fitness Crusader of the Year by Health magazine.
Kolber was born in London and lived in Liverpool until she was 18. She was a dancer for 10 years in Europe.
“Dancing was always a struggle, I was never as good as I wanted to be,” she says. “I was a good dancer but not a great dancer. It wasn’t a happy period in my life; it was always a very stressful time.”
Kolber took her first aerobics class in London in 1982 but was unimpressed.
“It was jumping jacks for an hour,” she says. “I thought, ‘This is so boring,’ and as a dancer, you kinda put your nose up to it and go, ‘ugh, aerobics.’ ”
After moving to Miami in 1983, she gave aerobics another try by attending a class taught by a dancer she knew. And this time, she was hooked.
“It was fabulous. It was amazing music,” she says. “It was like dance combinations but all stuff you could do, and it was so much fun.”
While preparing for a move to New York, she decided she needed a backup plan in case her dancing career foundered. So she became certified as an aerobics instructor.
Shortly afterward, she received an announcement about one of the first workshops that Gin Miller, creator of the step-exercise program, taught for Reebok.
She was fascinated by step. No sooner had she begun stepping on and off the platform, she says, then she knew this workout was for her.
“We did basic right and basic left for an hour,” she says, “but I knew this was it.”
She began visiting gyms in Miami and trying to convince the owners of the value of step aerobics. But “nobody wanted to know about it,” she says.
The following week, Kolber taught a step class using moves she learned from Miller’s video. One person showed up for class. But within three weeks, the class was drawing 30 people.
Kolber’s next big step came four years after her move to New York. She created a step class to the accompaniment of percussion music called London Beat. A female employee of Reebok who attended the class was so impressed that she convinced her company to make Kolber a spokeswoman for the shoe maker.
More recently, Kolber used her devotion to fitness and exercise in her battle against Hodgkin’s disease. She was diagnosed with the disease about a year ago, after discovering a lump on her neck. Fortunately, the disease was at a very early stage.
Although she had to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments, Kolber was determined to not let her illness get the better of her. She would have chemo on a Monday and teach on Tuesday.
“Exercise kept me strong,” she says. “Exercise was the one aspect I had control of. I knew I would feel better at the end of it. There were days when I didn’t want to work out. But the days I worked out I knew I was going to be OK. I knew I was going to beat this.”
After finishing her treatments, Kolber decided to move to the West Coast.
“Quality of life brought me out here,” she says. “I needed to move from New York, and if I didn’t do it, it would have been a total disservice to myself.”
Kolber’s three classes at SportsClub LA are step and sculpt (Wednesday from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m.), an agility-type class called Power Play (Tuesday from 9 to 10:15 a.m.) and a low-impact dance class (Wednesday from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.). And starting in August, her schedule will be available on her Web site at www.petrakolber.com.
“You know, I have to prove myself all over again,” she says. “First impressions are so important. This really is a challenge, but I’m looking forward to it.
“I have a new appreciation for exercise--it’s no longer about calories and body fat but about helping people be the best that they can be.”
*
This is the last Gym Rat column. I’d like to thank everyone for their support. And to those who faxed and e-mailed with gyms for me to visit, I’m sorry I couldn’t get to them all. Thanks to all the gym owners who make sure their group exercise instructors conduct fun, safe classes, keep their locker rooms clean and their equipment in working order.