FASHION Magazine

Beauty director Adriana Ermter tests the Core Rhythms (corerhythms.com) dance DVDs.

I’ve hit a new level: I can actually perform 30 minutes of Latin dance moves without having to press pause and repeat. It’s a miracle and a head rush all at the same time. So while I only achieved three out of my five intended workouts, the fact that I am no longer wiping the living room floor with my butt is a massive achievement.

Beauty director Adriana Ermter tests the Core Rhythms dance DVDs.

I feel hungover. I’m not, but working up a sweat while attempting to contort my body into unnatural dance positions within five seconds of ripping myself out of bed is disgusting. I’m not fully awake, I haven’t had my three-cup caffeine infusion, the Globe lies unread at my door, it’s 6:30 in the morning… it’s inhumane.

But I think I love it.

In my mind, I’m a dancer: My lithe, lean body leaping, pirouetting and chasséing to and from the office, the grocery store, Sunday brunch…

In reality, I’m a beauty director: Sitting on my ass 24/7 be it on a Euro-bound plane or in front of a computer screen. But I covet the art of dance the same way an eight-year-old girl craves cupcakes covered in sprinkles. To be able to make my body⎯the one that trips when walking in flip flops and routinely bangs into my desk, the wall and occasionally my colleagues at work⎯swivel, twirl and undulate anytime I want and look amazing doing it? I could swallow it whole.

Well aware of my not-so-secret desire (thanks to incessant chatter about So You Think You Can Dance), health editor Rani Sheen suggested I give the Core Rhythms (corerhythms.com) dance DVDs a try. Add a little Latin-influenced bump and grind to my current finger snapping, left-foot-right-foot-slide repertoire, and tighten my tushy and abs simultaneously? She didn’t have to ask me twice.