St. Louis native and professional dancer Morgana Phlaum is enjoying life in the Big Apple, where she combines her love of dance with a devoted fitness routine. The Whitfield School alumna (’06) first slipped into ballet shoes around the age of 3 when she started dance lessons at Ballet Conservatory (later Ballet Midwest) in Clayton. Her mom, also a professional dancer, was her first teacher.
“I mainly focused on ballet until I got to college,” she explains. “At SMU, I used my ballet technique to explore other dance styles and became passionate about modern dance.” Phlaum earned a degree in dance performance and accepted her first jobs out of college as a performer with Le Grand Cirque and the show Christmas on Broadway for six months in Destin, Florida, and Reno, Nevada.
Next, she headed to New York City, where the exhausting audition process began. “It was just one audition after another at first,” Phlaum recalls. “As I grew as an artist, I was able to be more selective with which jobs I accepted.” Now she dances with Inclined Dance Project and Liebowitz and Dancers, two modern dance companies that each perform about five times a year. “I’m still auditioning for bigger companies, but it’s a difficult process,” she notes. “New York is so heavily saturated
with artists.”
As if rehearsals, dance classes and performances didn’t take up enough time, the Upper East Side resident has additional gigs to keep her busy. She became interested in fitness a few years ago when she started working for Fluidity Fitness. “I teach barre method classes for the company, travel to fitness expos, and serve as a fitness model on the Home Shopping Network,” Phlaum says. “When I started the barre workouts, I really noticed a change in my body. Dancing is great exercise, but this is a good cross-training tool and really helps with muscle development.”
Phlaum uses the ClassPass service to keep exercise enjoyable and get ideas for her own classes. For a monthly fee, members can take unlimited classes at different area gyms. “Just going to the same gym can get boring,” she says. “I can take anything from yoga and Pilates to strength training and boot camp.” She especially enjoys circuit training, which involves quick timed stations with weights and exercises, to define her muscles. “The variation in workouts and dance classes keeps my muscles from getting bored and works my mind, too. Along with eating healthy, I’m able to mold my body into something I’m really happy with!”
[the routine]
I often work out seven days a week just because it’s fun, but sometimes I take a day off. I start my day at 7 a.m. by teaching TRX, and I also teach the barre method at local gyms. I take various exercise classes throughout the week at different gyms using a special fitness pass called ClassPass. I belong to two different dance companies and usually rehearse a total of three to five times a week. I also take a few dance classes each week to practice new techniques.
