Jacki Sorensen

Jacki Sorensen is an American dancer, choreographer and fitness educator who originated Aerobic Dancing, a codified program that brought cardiovascular exercise into reach for non-dancers through choreographed movement to music. Born in Oakland, California, Sorensen trained across tap, ballet, modern, acrobatic, Hawaiian and jazz dance, developing an early reputation for teaching people without dance backgrounds.

In 1969, while living near Ramey Air Force Base in Puerto Rico, Sorensen created her pivotal innovation: she organized continuous rhythmic movement into a teachable cardiovascular program designed for Air Force wives. Unlike simple exercise set to music, her method used choreographic structure to make participation accessible and repeatable. After returning to the continental United States, she began teaching in New Jersey and incorporated Aerobic Dancing, Inc. in 1972, establishing a system of instructor certification and a changing choreographic curriculum delivered in community facilities and educational settings.

By 1981, Aerobic Dancing, Inc. had reached an estimated scale of 1,500 locations, 4,000 instructors and approximately 170,000 students. In 1982, the company presented a major fundraising contribution to Special Olympics. Sorensen continued to evolve the program, later operating under Jacki's, Inc. and introducing StrongStep. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition in 2012. Her method organized choreography as the teaching technology of a workout—using repeated phrases, directional changes and adapted social- and jazz-dance motifs to sustain continuous motion while keeping exertion memorable and scalable for different fitness levels.