A Jazzercise class from 1989. What began fifty years ago as a beginners’ dance class in Illinois is now a multimillion-dollar company that operates in twenty-five countries.of consequence happened in 1969, which means that this year is chockablock with golden anniversaries: the moon landing, Stonewall, the Manson murders. But do not neglect the fact that 2019 also marks a half century of Jazzercise.
Back in 1969, Missett was a twenty-five-year-old jazz dancer living in Evanston, Illinois, with her husband, who was working as a TV-news reporter, and her one-year-old daughter.
had a friend whip up a branded leotard. “Well, the next day, when I went to class, everybody was, like, ‘Where can we get those leotards?’ ” she recalled. An apparel division was born. In what may have been the brand’s cultural apotheosis, Missett nabbed a spot in the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics, in Los Angeles, alongside some three hundred Jazzercisers.