Wayback Wednesday: Filming Aerobics With Soul®

We had so much fun filming Kilimanjaro -- the advanced level of Aerobics With Soul® -- at Tarangire National Park in Tanzania, East Africa, in 1994!

Our party of 21 people, including dancers and film crew, left the United States loaded with equipment, exercise wear, music cassettes, choreography books and our own seamstress --  who came in handy for the multiple wardrobe malfunctions!

Those days the film crew used huge video cameras that they carried on their shoulders while they filmed. We were joined by several dancers from Kenya and one from the UK. The makeup artist, who did a brilliant job, came from Nairobi. For the entire two weeks of filming, she kept us looking fresh in spite of the constant perspiration running down our faces from dancing in the 95 degree tropical sun! We cleared out a patch of land in the Park, covered it with a tarp, and that became the stage where we danced. A few weeks after the filming, our "stage" reverted to its original state and blended with the rest of the vegetation in the Park.

I have returned to Tanzania several times since the filming. Each time I make a pilgrimage to the spot  where Kilimajaro was filmed. It has been transformed into a tranquil place where visitors can enjoy a sundowner (drink at sunset) while watching animals make their twice daily trek to the Tarangire River to drink. This is how our dancing stage looked on February 5th, 2019, when I was there.