Daily Pilot

Teaching to the beat
Costa Mesan's hip-hop exercise classes combine physical education with math, culture.
By Michael Miller, Daily Pilot

Parents who send their children to Hiba Shublak's dance classes can rest assured: Their sons and daughters will not come home singing songs by rapper Eminem.

However, the family stereo may be blasting hip-hop for a few days. Under Shublak, a 30-year-old Costa Mesa resident who has taught physical fitness since high school, students learn how to groove to 50 Cent, Missy Elliott, Destiny's Child, Usher and other popular artists -- and even get a workout in the process.

"I loved rap music since I was a little kid," said Shublak. "I was listening to N.W.A. and Eazy-E, which is gangster rap, but I loved the beat of it. I didn't pay attention to the lyrics."

Nowadays, in preparing classes for children as young as preschool, Shublak observes the words carefully. She chooses danceable songs from pop artists like Justin Timberlake, or, if she ventures into 50 Cent territory, uses the cleaned-up radio versions of hits. Her efforts paid off this summer, as the Lebanon native won the first-ever California Assn. for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance "Innovator of the Year" award.

Shublak defeated two other contenders for the award, which was co-sponsored by the association's local chapter and the Orange County Dept. of Education. Along with a plaque, Shublak will receive free registration at the association's state conference in Garden Grove next March.

"I had nominated Hiba for Innovator of the Year based on a couple of criteria," said Chris Corliss, the physical education coordinator for the Orange County Dept. of Education. "She was doing something completely new and something that was based in solid science and research data, and something that was actually being applied in low income urban schools with successful student outcomes."

A positive spin on rap

Shublak's hip-hop exercise classes are part of her Active Learning Experience program, which combines physical education with math and literary aspects. Shublak sought to put a positive spin on a genre that many find offensive, and by editing out some of hip-hop's raunchier lyrics, she allows her students to concentrate on the music's complex rhythms.

"It's kind of like when rock 'n' roll came into the music industry,"she explained. "It stirred a lot of change. A lot of people were scared of it."

Far from threatening, however, Shublak sees hip-hop as a cultural uniter.

"It's very eclectic," she said. "It captures sounds from Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America and combines them into this beat and rhythm. We live in this melting pot, and hip-hop is so symbolic of culture."

Shublak's own life story is eclectic as well. Born in Lebanon, she moved with her family around the Middle East and Europe before settling in Los Angeles at the age of 8. When she was 15, her parents enrolled her at Holiday Spa -- now Bally Total Fitness -- in Huntington Beach. Although she'd never been athletic before, Shublak grew so addicted to the gym that two years later, she applied for a job as a fitness trainer.

"It was the first time I'd found myself being successful at something," Shublak said. "I was never good at sports, and though I've always been passionate about dancing, I always felt afraid to be a cheerleader or a dancer at school."

All energy and motivation

Her shyness behind her, Shublak has taught fitness and aerobics for the last 12 years -- at Bally, Sports Club/Irvine and her own apartment complex, the Lakes at South Coast. Most of her time, though, is spent traveling to schools around Southern California to lead children of all ages in exercise classes. Shublak, who has contracts with 11 school districts in Orange County, sometimes teaches up to six sessions a day.

Late last month, Shublak led her last school classes of the year at Pacifica High School in Garden Grove. This fall, she may be working closer to home. Sharon Moore, a grant nutritionist who works for the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, has spoken with Shublak about leading training sessions for elementary teachers next year.

"She's pretty energetic, and she's great about talking to people in layman's terms," Moore said. "We're looking at trying to empower elementary teachers to get kids to learn fun ways about getting fit, and people like Hiba can provide teachers with the energy and the motivation to do it."

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or by e-mail at michael.miller@latimes.com.