Marla Rottenstreich fuses a love for dance with a commitment to Torah, bringing the joy of a healthy outlet to frum women worldwide

I grew up in central New Jersey, but it might as well have been Whittier, Alaska  for all the Jews I encountered. My neighborhood was incredibly secular, and we all went to WASP-y private prep schools.

I trained for, and excelled at, competitive dancing and gymnastics. I won medals and traveled the world with dance troupes. At the peak of my career I was the only white girl —  forget Jewish! — to work as a professional hip-hop dancer.

Somewhere along the way I got into progressive causes, saving the environment, yoga, meditation — all the New Age stuff. I was living at an ashram in India when I attended an environmentalist conference. With my long robes and knee-length dreadlocks, I didn’t think I looked particularly Jewish, but the Chabad rabbi approached and asked if I was.

“You don’t belong here,” he told me very bluntly. “You belong in Israel.”

I wasn’t offended. I was a searching soul and welcomed anything the universe wanted to teach me.

I boarded a plane and quickly fell in love with Tzfas. I did a complete 180, taking on every observance I learned about. It was too much, too soon. I wasn’t used to wearing all those heavy clothes, and I wasn’t dancing at all. I returned to the US and shed everything.

But the seeds were still there, and in time, I learned to take things on at a sustainable pace. I settled down, married, and started a family in Edison, which was a convenient location for my husband’s job. I taught some dance classes, but nothing in the frum community.

At a community women’s event, we each shared a little about ourselves. Some of the other ladies said they’d love to attend an exercise class. I self-consciously turned them down: my music is non-Jewish; the moves I teach aren’t appropriate for a frum group.

But they were interested and persistent, so I learned. I got a psak from a rav about what kind of music I could incorporate, and I learned what kind of dress and movement are appropriate in our circles. My studio, Mekor Fitness, thrived.