Bravo Arts Academy - Allegan, Michigan

Rachel V.

I have been regularly taking classes at Bravo Arts Academy since it opened in May 2016. I really enjoy all of different classes offered and a big part of that is the main instructor, Alison Peterson-Loll. She has taken her extensive dance background and applied it to a variety of workout and dance classes for adults and kids. She is excellent at helping a new student feel comfortable starting a workout routine and a master at challenging her established students to keep pushing themselves. She is also awesome at adapting a movement or position to limitations we might have with an injury or chronic problem.

I have been doing Cardio Barre class (low impact stretching and strengthening cardio class using ballet-inspired movements and poses) with the owner once or twice a week for over 3 years (beginning at a prior location) and continue to find this an effective workout both for beginners with no dance background and, with layered in technique boosters, more advanced participants.

I take her Plank It class twice a week as well. This 30 minute workout of 2-3 minute routines of Plank poses and transitions to upbeat music is an efficient way to target strengthening the core abdominal muscles along with sculpting the legs, arms and back.

The most recent addition for her teen and adult classes are the aerial silk yoga and fitness classes. Follow Bravo Arts Academy on Instagram or check out the Facebook page/website for photos and videos of these unique classes. In silk hammocks suspended from the ceiling (silk holds over 500 lbs and rigging is rated to hold over 2000 lbs), we do stretches, poses, core challenges, flips, and more. The yoga class is low to no impact and requires no yoga experience. Anyone, no matter their age, athletic level or body type can participate successfully. It is a combination of meditation, hybrid yoga/dance moves and poses assisted by the silk and some inversions. As a motion sickness suffering, I tolerate this class with only a few adaptations and this has actually improved the more I do silk classes.
The aerial silk fitness class is for people who want a little more challenge/physical workout invoking more strength moves and involved poses and inversions. However we all start out as beginners and this is again something that is pretty easy to pick up and then build upon the skills you learn in each class. Once you master a trick that you've seen on the website or saw another student do the class before, you are hooked, wanting to see what you can do next.

One of the main themes of the classes I take is that they are a lot of fun and unique so you often walk away realizing what a great workout you got doing something that didn't feel like boring exercise.

So, as you can tell, I am a big fan of Bravo Arts Academy and I didn't even talk about the excellent instruction done for the children's ballet, jazz and tap dance classes.

Kate H.