Copyright Salt Lake Tribune
Provo • Dirtylicious Dance Fitness is a Provo-based company that hosts dance fitness classes at gyms across Utah and in other states. Its choreography is intentionally on the sexier side, often including moves like twerking, body rolls, shimmying and floor work. The program became embroiled in controversy in June, when Provo officials removed Dirtylicious classes from the city’s recreation center, which is open to anyone age 14 and up. In a statement, the city said the “taxpayer-funded facility” had a “clear mission to support family-friendly programming,” and a review of the classes prompted by a single complaint revealed practices that “raised concerns about alignment with this mission.” The Salt Lake Tribune spoke with Dirtylicious co-founder Erica Tanner and her husband, Matson, about how Dirtylicious started and its mission. What’s so ‘dirty’ about Dirtylicious? To understand Dirtylicious, Matson Tanner said one must understand what it is not. “It’s not explicit, and it’s not sexual entertainment,” Erica Tanner said, sitting next to her husband at their kitchen table. “I feel like that should be made very clear.” That means Dirtylicious doesn’t teach people how to strip. What Dirtylicious will do, they said, is teach people sensual group choreography to get fitter and learn to love their bodies. The program is “empowerment through movement,” Erica Tanner said. “So, yeah, it’s sexy. We’re teaching people how to dance and feel sexy and confident in their own bodies,” Erica Tanner said, “but it’s not explicit. It’s done in a fun, approachable and, honestly, in my opinion, a very clean way.” The couple added that they only play clean music. “It’s literally just a dance class,” Matson Tanner said, “that doesn’t do anything different, movement-wise, than something like a Zumba, that’s well-accepted.” “It’s just for some reason,” he continued, “maybe its name, maybe because it says ‘dirty’ or something,” people get the wrong idea. When was Dirtylicious founded? Erica Tanner, who moved to Provo when she was 12, said she practiced and performed dance until she graduated high school but found few opportunities to keep up the hobby as an adult. She was looking for an outlet when she found “dirty dancing” classes at an old Gold’s Gym location. She liked the format and found that dancing in a class setting, untethered from the pressure of performance, was good for her. “I struggled really bad with body dysmorphia, like loving my body as I was,” she said, “and so dancing, and not just dancing, but dancing in a ‘dirty’ way, really helped me.” But those classes suffered from too much instructor turnover and a lack of consistent curriculum, she said. Eventually, she got a chance to teach and refined the lessons from there. That product, Dirtylicious, launched in 2019. Its first class at the Provo Recreation Center was in 2022. Erica Tanner said maintaining self-love isn’t always easy. Bodies change. That’s where she said Dirtylicious comes in. “We need to have things in our life,” she said, “that continuously help us find that confidence and help us fall in love with ourselves over and over and over again.” Who is Dirtylicious for? Classes are meant for all ages and skill levels, according to the program’s website. For those without dance experience, Erica Tanner crafted a dance dictionary, coining terms like “scrape the jar” and “granny jiggle” to relay moves to beginners and seem more approachable. While the dances may include twerking or floor work, Erica Tanner said the moves are tame — akin to what she learned as a child in the “dance world.” In general, instructors at each class will teach participants combos of dance moves. Once they have it memorized, participants will split into groups and perform the choreography for each other. Videos of those performances were often posted to social media. Why is it controversial? In May, someone who identified themself as a concerned parent and taxpayer emailed the Provo City Council and two state lawmakers after seeing a Dirtylicious video on Facebook. “I noticed that many of the dance moves appear quite sexual,” they wrote. “Since the Recreation Center is a family-oriented facility supported by our local government (paid for with citizen bonds and/or property taxes) and accessible to teens and younger children, I believe this type of content is inappropriate.” That complaint launched the review, and Provo’s rec center ultimately decided to cut ties with Dirtylicious a month later. The city said in a written statement that the review presented concerns about unauthorized filming in class, particularly of any children without a parent’s consent, as well as whether the program was appropriate for the rec center’s younger users. The review also uncovered a handful of past complaints about the classes’ “appropriateness” that weren’t apparently shared with upper management. The Tanners said they believe the city’s response was an overreaction based on a misunderstanding of the class from people who hadn’t taken it. Since then, nearly 1,600 have signed a petition asking for the classes to be reinstated. The city has also received dozens of emails in support of Dirtylicious. One wrote, “Out of all the classes offered at the Rec Center, Dirtylicious stood out as something truly special,” adding that it was “consistently well-attended, loved by many, and offered a fun, effective workout that celebrated confidence and self-love.” “Cutting this class,” the email continued, “feels like a step backward — especially in a time when spaces that uplift women and promote positive mental health are so deeply needed."
