What's Your Workout: Breakdancing

Classes available at Mint gym

Picture this: I’m in the newsroom. My co-workers are circled around me, chanting my name -- “Lauren! Lauren! Lauren!” -- their iPhones are out, poised for photos.

What was I to do? I couldn’t let my fans down. I had to show them my moves -- my B-Girl moves.

No, this wasn’t some dream. Yes, this actually happened. And yes, as my colleagues can attest, my moves are pretty, umm, lame.

It all started after I got back from shooting a What’s Your Workout? segment with Antonio “Tazk” Castillo, a local professional break dancer, who’s teaching a class at Mint gym in Adams Morgan. I checked out the class and discovered something very important: I can’t break dance.

That all being said, the class is super fun. Antonio taught us some basic moves. We started with the toprock. This one I could handle. It’s a simple step, back and forth. I had that one down!

Then we moved on to the six-step and that’s when things went south. The six-step is literally a series of ... duh, six steps. But these involve hands, feet and, most importantly, coordination. I mean, maybe I didn’t have enough coffee that morning, but I was a little lost.

From there, we worked on freezes (see newsroom picture above). At first, I was at a loss. A freeze involves placing your arms and head on the floor and then lifting your lower body off the ground. But once I figured out how to distribute my weight and engage my core, it was pretty simple. In fact, these are a lot like the arm balances we do in yoga, but they’re actually easier because you can put your head on the floor.

So it was all fun and games until class was over. My fearless sidekick, photographer Chester “Living Legend” Panzer, decided that he, too, would like to try the “freeze.”

Here’s the thing: Chester, whom I love dearly, is ... let’s say ... eligible for AARP, if you know what I mean. While he’s an avid cyclist, he’s also known to hurt his back simply unloading the dishwasher.

So I immediately had visions of calling 911 as he tried to work on his B-boy “skillz.” But I give him credit (see picture above), Chester (kinda) did it (with a little help).

By the time we left, we were both busting out our best breaking moves. I mean, we were ready for a battle!

So that’s how I ended up showing off my B-girl moves in the middle of the NBC4 newsroom. Let’s just say for Chester and me, “breaking” news has a whole new meaning.

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