Hip Hop to Help the Homeless

With Thanksgiving only a week away and some Christmas decorations already up, there is not much time to lose that beer belly or those thunder thighs before the holiday parties. You can give in and loosen the belt another notch, or wear that caftan again, or try the Holiday Hip-Hop-a-Thon Saturday at M. C. Cash Fitness in Old Pasadena.

A full day of hip hop aerobics? Yes, it’s a workout, but it’s fun, promises Ron Cash, co-owner of the fitness center.

“You don’t feel the pain,” he said. “You feel like you’re in a nightclub here.”

Don’t know how to hip hop?

Cash and his partner, Susan Riboli, said instructors leading the 45-minute low-impact sessions will be teaching the steps, with beginning classes in the morning, lots of repetition, and more advanced classes as the day goes on.

Klutziness a problem?

“It’s really easy, one, two, three, four,” Riboli said. “Like ballroom dancing.”

And if all that is not motivation enough to get you potatoes off the couch, think of this benefit: you will be raising money for the homeless.

“One hundred percent of the money is going to Union Station,” Riboli said, referring to the shelter on Raymond Avenue.

You can pay the $25 minimum donation, or you can get your friends to pledge money for each of the eight sessions you survive.

But you must start with the first class at 9 a.m. and keep going. For incentive, Power 106 FM radio disc jockey Tony Bennett will be mixing the tunes in person for the afternoon sessions. And there will be raffles all day with prizes donated by local merchants.

M. C. Cash Fitness is at 32 W. Colorado Blvd.