Fitness Therapy
for the art of living
Tel: 708-209-5664
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ImprovFit
A group fitness class for the performing artist
Josh Czuba is a performing arts instructor with over 5 years experience sharing the joy of musical theater with Oak Park students (3rd grade and up). Having earned his personal training certification from the National Academy of Sports Medicine, Josh is ecstatic to introduce ImprovFit: a 6 week experiential summer workshop series combining the hilarious and collaborative energy of an improv class with creative applications of fitness training. This workshop weaves just the right amount of cardio, strength, and flexibility into each improv exercise so students feel invigorated and empowered after every session. Whether you participate in theater, music, sports, or just like pretending to be your favorite superhero, (that’s me) ImprovFit is the perfect place for “new movers” to practice creative movement enjoyably and sustainably while making new friends. This workshop is highly cooperative: students will work together week by week to form their own cohesive improv team that can tell engaging stories through movement and voice, and entertain audiences. At the end of our 6 week series, each cohort will present to their families a collective movement flow developed as a group since our first session. This performance will be a unique fusion of improv comedy and interpretative dance, all of it demonstrating the cultivation of endurance, mobility, strength, grace of movement, and other components of physical fitness. All that’s required for this workshop is a willingness to try something new and a big imagination. Students of all movement and ability levels are encouraged to sign up and join in on the fun. At ImprovFit, kids will express themselves through movement, develop acting and improv skills, and become more physically fit all as happy “side effects” to just having fun. Prepare to have a blast, learn and laugh a lot, and of course - move!
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Join ImprovFit today!
Details
Class size is limited to 8-12 students per session. Summer promotion of only $35 per two hour session for this 6 week workshop!!
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Register Today!
JOSH CZUBA
(708) 714-6310 - call or text
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Curriculum
Each class begins with a 15 minute warmup/check in. As students arrive, we begin by walking throughout our play space. We move at our own pace, in our own little worlds, focusing on the rhythm of our breath and our footsteps as we reconnect with our bodies, mentally and physically preparing for a productive session of exploration, imaginative storytelling, and expressive movement. We stop intermittently to check in, hear from our fellow practitioners on how they’re doing/how they’re feeling as well as stretch/mobilize key areas of our body before the main session begins. This continues throughout the 15 minutes until we are effectively focused, calm, and physically prepared for class.
We spend the next 45 minutes of class practicing new material, or new concepts. In our first session, we’ll begin exploring the most basic ways our body can move and how we can manipulate our physicality to create different shapes, both individually and as a group. We’ll cover how to move safely and respectfully, ensuring class can be fun and injury-free for everyone. These foundations will serve as the bedrock for our movement practice in the coming weeks, as we add complexity to our exercises and begin creating our class performance.
As the new concepts settle into our minds and bodies, we apply them directly during the next 45 minutes of class through improv games and character acting exercises. Crowd favorites like Freeze, ZipZapZop, Night at the Museum, and Bus Stop will all be featured in class, used to specifically practice and refine elements of our movement practice with the hysterical unpredictability of improv. Students will become engaging storytellers, practiced in creating elegant synchronized movement as well as physical comedy.
In the final 15 minutes of class, we conduct our group cooldown, or ‘closer’. We implement gentle stretching, yoga flows, and slow, easy movements to relax us out of each session. We review the weekly concepts and reflect on our key takeaways from the session as well as what to look forward to in the next one. As we wrap up with meditation and a moment of group stillness, we leave each class with an energized body and a peaceful mind. We share high fives, warm goodbyes, and part ways til next week’s practice.