Hip-hop ‘til you drop

A few pounds, that is. A Newport resident travels to Orange County schools to teach dancing as a fun form of exercise. When Hiba Shublak has spoken at physical education conferences over the last few years, trumpeting her theories of hip-hop dancing as exercise, audience members often asked her if she had a film for them to take home.

This year, Shublak will finally be able to say yes.

The Newport Beach resident, who has taught physical fitness since high school, recently finished production on her first DVD, “Active Learning: Hip Hop to Health.” When Shublak speaks at the California Assn. for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance’s annual symposium in March, the film will be on sale for the first time.

“It was costly, but it was worth it,” said Shublak, 31, who financed the project on her own.

A native of Lebanon and a Southern California resident since age 8, Shublak last year became the first winner of the association’s innovator of the year award, which she won for her methods of using hip-hop music as an exercise tool. Her classes, taught in more than a dozen school districts around Orange County, allow children and teens to work out to 50 Cent, Usher and other rap stars -- with Shublak keeping a close eye on the lyrical content.

The release of the film comes at a heady time for Shublak, who joined the Orange County Health Care Agency’s nutrition services division in July as a physical activities specialist. The first person to hold the job, Shublak travels around Orange County leading fitness seminars in low-income neighborhoods.

“She comes into the program with that experience and that enthusiasm to get people to move, and that’s what we want to do,” said Meredith Ibanez, the program manager for nutrition services. “We want people to be physically active, and she’s able to get that message across.”

With the pending release of her DVD, though, Shublak can fulfill a lifelong dream of appearing in multiple places at once.

The DVD covers two dance routines and a warmup exercise, with Shublak leading eight students from Garden Grove’s Pacifica High School in the movements. Shublak created the dance steps shown in the film and commissioned the music from Focus 3 Media, a Los Angeles-based production company.

“Usually, what I do is choose a really popular song that kids like,” she said. “Because of legality reasons, I had a composer create the music. But it also doesn’t date the video. If you watch it 10 years from now, there won’t be a song from this era.”

Although the routines in the film were Shublak’s creation, she received valuable feedback from the students.

“These kids have taken my classes three times, and they know my style,” she said. “They’re all types of cultures too, and I like that, to show diversity.”

In October, after a few days of rehearsal, Shublak and the students filmed “Active Learning” in a four-hour session at Giants Gymnastics in Tustin. The final cut of the DVD, according to Shublak, runs about 45 minutes.

As the release date of her film approaches, the instructor has grown involved in her hometown school district for the first time. Next week, Shublak plans to lead a seminar for Newport-Mesa preschool teachers on how to integrate physical fitness into the everyday curriculum.

“We’re excited having our teachers learn a little more about what they can do in their classrooms to keep kids moving,” said Sharon Moore, a grant project nutritionist for Newport-Mesa. “It’s not just about P.E. It’s about kids being physically active.”

20060131itxhmqncDON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)Hiba Shublak will soon release “Active Learning: Hip Hop to Health,” a DVD advocating dancing as exercise. She’s taught in more than a dozen school districts around Orange County and will lead a seminar for Newport-Mesa preschool teachers next week.