Hi Natalia, great to talk to you. You are our OneFit regular! Every month we have different interviews to get to know each other a little extra and a different theme we light up and this month we thought it would be nice to talk about Onefit. Our dancestudio usually works with a membership system and now we added this online membership from Onefit to our school so people can join in on solo classes and try everything they would like, even Zouk beginners. Many people come on a regular basis now, like yourself! Can you tell us more? Onefit is an online fitness membership; with this membership I can take classes with all the different schools that are part of this. Different schools in Rotterdam as well as in Amsterdam, which is nice because I work there. I love to take the power classes like WOD’s (crossfit), bootcamps in the parks of Rotterdam, and of course African dance over here. I can come to the studio four times a month, so almost every week I do this class.
How did you start dancing?
A Russian friend of mine who also joined Onefit, she is so enthousiastic, she tries everything. She asked me to come to African class. She never went again but now I go every week! I love it, it has so much energy and power. It’s really a workout class. I think I showed the film of Bess dancing to all of my collegues at work!
I work in Amsterdam with a bank for four years now. I am originally from Moskow. I studied economics there for three years, then moved to England for one year and finally did my masters here in Rotterdam, where I met my boyfriend. In Russia I never danced before. In Moskow there are places for partner dances and also Zumba etc. But I don’t really care much for it, really. Also the Russian men are not so tall, neither are the women!
Ah i see now why you moved to Holland?? 😉 Are you trying more classes?
Sometimes I come early to watch the other class: burlesque. It looks so nice. But it’s not for me, I don’t really feel the feminine dance and coördination of the steps is not so much for me. I love the power classes and the workouts! But African dance I immediately loved. For my work I travelled to Rwanda and to Ghana. With the bank you can do volunteer work over there and you can really make a big difference with the knowledge you have, even if it’s just basic. Here you are part of the big coorperation but there, people have schooling for maximun six years in their lives. You can help them start their own business for example. You work with them and teach them on a very basic level and make a big difference. I would love to go back one day, and that is possible too. So when i heard African dance i was like: yes i want to try!!
Thank you Natalia and we hope to see more of you!
Sure! I come here every week and it’s out of my way: coming back from Amsterdam and living at Kop van Zuid. But when the weather is good I come here by bike and make it a double workout! A 40 minute bike ride home waits for me now but it’s worth it!