Fitness guru on how dance transformed him from a shy, chubby child into a social butterfly

As a child he felt chubby and self conscious. Now, as one of the instructors of the Saturday Night Fitness, he's thrilled to be able to inspire others to get fit as he presents a class at South Africa’s biggest workout party hosted by YOU magazine.

Mac-D, as he prefers to be known, struggled with self-confidence growing up and battled to fit in with his peers. It wasn’t until his then best friends’ brother taught him how to perform hip-hop dance moves such as krumping, that his belief in himself soared.

“By the time I was 13, I was one of the best dancers in my community,” he says.

“I started teaching some of the neighbourhood kids some of my moves and that’s how we used each other’s strengths to build friendships, many of which still exist to date.”

In 2012 Mac-D graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in development and management from the North-West University but he struggled to find a job.

“I realised I needed to do something else, I couldn’t rely on employment even though I had a degree and the means to get employed.”

He left his hometown of Rustenburg in North West to live with his uncle in Tshwane where he used his dancing skills to make a living. He joined a dance school where he became a professional ballroom dancer and in 2018 opened his own dance academy.

"I taught school children and their moms how to dance by breaking down dance into a series of short-form steps.”

In that same year, he was approached by Planet Fitness to host high intensity interval training and cardio dance sessions at the gym.

“The manager saw me teaching my friends how to dance and that’s how I got the job,” he shares.

He also started started dance organisation Fitness Icon to provide services to gyms and corporate clients. The organisation comprises of 10 members from different fields who host innovative cardio workouts fused with urban dance moves.

"My main purpose is to redefine people’s perspectives of dancing. Dancing is a form of functional training put in motion, movement and music," he says.

Fitness Icon offers dance fitness programmes to one school in Tshwane and he hopes to roll it out to more schools across the province. 

“There’s a lot of values we have lost in schools in terms of keeping children active and what they actually like, for example, there are kids that aren’t good at sports and ideally that’s where Fitness Icon comes in.”

Using dance, Mac-D hopes to motivate more youngsters who like him, struggled to fit in.

“Through dance I believe children can learn a lot about confidence, spatial awareness and cognitive development.”

He also believes dance can empower women and hopes to use his time at SNF to do so.

“SNF is an event that unites all types of women who support each other and that’s one of the core pillars of any community.”