NEW YORK: World-class art, meet sweaty aerobics.

New York City’s cavernous Metropolitan Museum of Art has been holding lively morning workout sessions this winter amid its prized masterpieces.

The 45-minute “Museum Workout” sends people in exercise attire chugging through 35 galleries, past paintings, sculptures, and other treasures, before the venerable Fifth Avenue institution opens to the public.

On a recent morning, an overnight snowstorm didn’t deter any of the 15 people who’d signed up for the session. It started with a warmup: calf stretches in the museum’s grand limestone entrance and an easy jog out to the Bee Gees’ hit “Stayin’ Alive.”

The Met commissioned the innovative Monica Bill Barnes Dance Company for the project. The first sessions, from Jan 19 through Feb 12, were sold out months ago. The interest was so intense that more were added, through March 9, and they’re also sold out.

Museum officials say there are no immediate plans for a future staging of what is essentially a “performance piece” that took three years to create.

Published in Dawn February 19th, 2017