Beauty

Pretend you are a kid from Fame with a Werk It! Dance class. Leotard optional

Learn all the right moves at a Werk It! Dance class

The treatment

A drop in Werk It! Dance class with Jo Richards at Dancebase, Edinburgh, £7.50 (£6.50 concessions) for 60 minutes. Classes, suitable for beginners, are on Wednesdays at 5:30pm and 8:30pm, until 5 December.

Why go?

You’d like to jazz up your fitness routine so it feels like fun, not a chore, and to pretend you’re one of the kids from Fame. I want to learn how to fly. High.

Our spy says

Once I’ve got on my leg warmers and thong leotard (only joking, loose and comfortable work-out gear will do), I head upstairs to the class, where loads of young women, a smattering of older ones (including me), and zero blokes, are milling.

Nobody else looks nervous, though I’m one of about five newbies who raise their hands when prompted, with all of us hiding at the back of the class.

Our teacher, Jo, is suitably glam, with false lashes and a bit of sparkle on her top, like a backing dancer for Madonna or something. I immediately want to be more Jo-like.

After a few perfunctory stretches, we’re into the first routine, with Nineties hip-hop playing.

It involves a step to the side, using the opposite arm as a sort of oar, then bounce, squat with one leg, clap, squat with the other, clap.

I get really hung up about which leg we squat with first. My brain is popping like primordial goo.

Although already floundering, I remind myself not to go in a huff. The show must go on, darlings, and I fix on a smile.

After some practice, we add a second chapter to the routine, then a third. The front row are amazing, snaking to the side, crisscrossing legs, and doing this running on the spot move that I just can’t master.

The other newbies creep forward, until eventually I’m the only doofus at the back.

Now it’s time for some conditioning work, so we all do press-ups, leg-lifts and planks, coached through our form by Jo, who doubles as a personal trainer. I’m better at these rigid and robotic fitness moves, this is my forte.

The class is split into two groups, one of which performs the dance routine three times, while the other does the core exercises, then we switch.

Next, we pick a partner, and do situps facing each other. I think I do more than I’ve ever done in one go ever. Maybe 37, perhaps 4,000 – who knows, it’s all a blur. We wrap up with some yoga-style stretches, to ease out those dancing muscles.

The results

Though not a natural mover, I really want to go back to this class, which fires up the brain, as well as the abs and hips. Sometimes I think the exercises you’re rubbish at are the ones you most need in your life. Right here is when you start paying: in sweat. n Dancebase (14-16 Grassmarket, Edinburgh, 0131-225 5525, www. dancebase.co.uk)