Perhaps not for your first date, but if you’re looking for an out-of-the-box, fun, inexpensive experience for a date, why not try a MixxedFit drop-in class at Renton’s Dojo 3?

Created by Lori Chung three years ago, MixxedFit is an explosive, people-inspired, dance fitness program run from the martial arts gym in downtown Renton. About 70 percent of Dojo 3’s members prefer MixxedFit to any other dance program the gym offers, including zumba.

“I feel like the market right now is pretty saturated with zumba,” said Chung. “Especially this Renton area, they got ahold of MixxedFit and they ran with it.”

Chung, who started out as a zumba instructor, said they’re not out to replace zumba, but MixxedFit gives her the freedom to create workout routines to popular hip hop music and not be tied to doing the 70 percent Latin-inspired moves required in zumba.

“Now if people want to get down to Ludacris, or Pitbull, or – I don’t know – Beyoncé, we can now do that in a class called MixxedFit, when it wasn’t welcome in zumba,” Chung said.

The 60-minute classes are predominantly women, but more men are attending. Demographics of the workout sessions are diverse in age, race and couples who attend. There are guys and girls, mothers, daughters and sons, married couples and girlfriends.

“You’d be amazed,” Chung said. “It’s most popular, obviously, 18 to 35 is our largest demographic. I think our oldest is 65, 67 around there and they love it.”

“They come, they feel very sexy. We do a lot of body rolls, booty popping, twerking,” she said laughing. “So it’s a lot of fun.”

Drop-in classes are $10 and the most-popular class for newbies is the MixxedFit Club session. The main lights are turned off and strobe and colored lights turned on, creating a more comfortable setting to try new dance moves and go unnoticed.

Instructor Jessica Quande burns about 1,000 calories in one MixxedFit class and said a regular routine helped her loose 80 pounds.

“If you look into our crowd, people are smiling and they’re laughing,” Quande said. “They’re having a good time because we’re booty-popping and body-rolling and we’re just having a good time and working out too.”

The most current weekly schedule of MixxedFit classes are online . Check out the class virtually and learn some of the dance moves on YouTube, where Dojo 3 has about 40 classes available via video.

Photos/Slideshow by Tracey Compton.