The Prancing Wonder Behind Prancercise Finally Speaks

The frontrunner for People Magazine’s Beautiful Person of the 21st century and 2013’s sole inductee into the Camel Toe Hall of Fame, Joanna Rohrback, stopped prancing through the parks of Florida for a minute to talk to The Daily Beast about the fitness craze that has taken over the Internet, the world and beyond. Joanna the Prancer says that ever since Prancercise went viral, she’s been drowning in interview requests and Anna Wintour has already begged her camel toe to pose for the cover of the September issue of Vogue.

61-year-old Joanna started Prancercise by accident when she was walking down the street in Hollywood in the 90s. The spirit of a horse galloping through poppy fields took over her body and she started prancing like she was Sarah Jessica Parker at her cotillion.

“I must have heard a really good song I liked on the radio,” Rohrback said. “I started moving in a rhythmic way, using ankle weights. And it just evolved.”

It felt like prancing, she said, like the way a happy horse frolics through a field of poppies. She was using her upper body and her legs, and because the whole thing was so fluid and natural, there was no pounding impact on the pavement. Prancercise was born, and it was beautiful.

Rohrback started prancercising outside, every day, on the “boardwalk” in Hollywood. People asked her about it constantly. “I think I even got it on a news clip,” she said. She quickly realized she shouldn’t keep prancercising to herself.

Joanna tried to make Prancercise a thing, but it never took off. She thinks that if she had investors, it could’ve been bigger than Zumba.

In the early 2000s, scientists were trying to figure out why there were no rainbows in the sky (just go with me on this) and depression in horses skyrocketed to 100%. Now we know the reason for this. A “female condition” kept Joanna from prancing and she didn’t prance for 9 years. But now she’s back with a book and is ready to prance like she’s never pranced before:

Last July, for the first time in nearly a decade, Joanna Rohrback discovered that she could prance once more. She knew it was time to share her creation with the world.

“I wake up and here it is, 2012. Oh my god, I had never fulfilled my dream,” she said. “The top of my bucket list.”

Rohrback says prancercising can have astounding results. She still does it every day—in her house. Florida is much too humid to prancercise outside, she said.

“You can go out and do something like this, in your own manner and your own form,” she says. “You don’t have to be like monkeys imitating each other in the gym.”

Prance on, Joanna, prance on! And I hope all of this leads to a prancing world tour. CoCo’s camel toe and Richard Simmons can open.