Lou Ideker grew up in North Carolina with a background in singing and dance. She trained and performed with Lauren Lorentz de Haas, Augustus Allen, and the African American Dance Ensemble. She got interested in weight training and working out in 1987, and quickly got hooked on the feeling of changing the body through movement. She started teaching fitness classes in 1992, and it was love at first sight - the perfect blend of music, movement, AND muscle!

     Lou began teaching regularly, finding a comfortable home within the North Carolina fitness community. She was soon hired as Assistant Choreographer and Dance Captain for the Fresh Fitness Aerobic Demonstration Team, a North Carolina-based dance and aerobics performance group that toured the Southeast doing promotional exhibitions for Nike and Calvin Klein. Around that time, Lou also choreographed and performed in musical theater at Duke University.

     Next, Lou moved to Boston where she was part of the original cast of "Merlyn: The Musical," directed by Scott Schwartz at the American Repertory Theater. Meanwhile, she took classes at Boston Ballet and continued her own teaching at Boston Fitness for Women.

     When Lou moved to New York in 1996, she expanded her fitness knowledge and experience by becoming a certified Personal Trainer. After a year of various Off-Broadway rock musicals and dance productions, she began personal training and teaching group classes full time. Over the years, she's continued to develop her teaching style and technique at many of New York's finest gyms, including: New York Sports Clubs, Equinox, Reebok Sports Club, Sports Club L.A., Bally's, and BodyStrength Fitness. She teaches Cardio Dance, Kickboxing, Step, and Body Sculpting & Conditioning. Each class is designed to create a flow, where the music and choreography come together and your body falls into place with the momentum and energy of the rhythm.

      Now, with the launch of EndorphinDance, Lou is pleased to offer two of her signature classes, Cardio Dance and Bad Ass Boxing, to the community outside the gym. She is excited to cultivate her vision of a group of people who love to move getting together to work out and jam! Or, as one of her students put it, "A place where we can go and spaz out and have fun while we work out, and no one looks at you like you're crazy, cause they all love it too!!!"

     Exactly.