For nearly 50 years, Jacqui Birdsong-James has been a beloved part of the Piedmont Adult School community. After nearly five decades of teaching, she is stepping away from her regular schedule, and the school hopes to find an instructor to continue the vibrant fitness community she created.<\/p>\n
Jacqui started as a physical education instructor at the Adult School in 1977, and has taught classes including body conditioning, jazz and tap dancing. For the past decade she has focused on cardio and strength training, with a devoted following for her popular Thursday morning classes.<\/p>\n
Over the years, Jacqui has seen fitness trends and technology evolve \u2014 from teaching with a 33\u2153 record player and stacks of albums to today\u2019s playlists streamed from her phone and portable speaker. But her philosophy has remained constant: helping people stay healthy, strong, and connected.<\/p>\n
Students know Jacqui not only as an instructor, but as someone who truly cares about them. She has made it a point to memorize every student\u2019s name and take an interest in their lives. \u201cPeople feel that I see them and appreciate them,\u201d she says. \u201cThat makes a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to her long career at Piedmont Adult School, Jacqui served for 20 years as Director of Dance and Music for the City of Oakland, overseeing programs in more than 30 schools throughout Oakland. Later, she worked as General Manager of the Bob Hope Theater and Stockton Arena before retiring from that role in 2008 and expanding her teaching at Piedmont. <\/p>\n
Although Jacqui is stepping back from her long-running schedule at Piedmont Adult School, she says she is \u201cnot fully retiring\u201d and plans to begin exploring the benefits of combining yoga with strength training. Piedmont Adult School is deeply grateful for Jacqui\u2019s decades of dedication, energy, and care for her students.<\/p>\n
Adult School Seeking New Fitness Instructor
As Jacqui begins this next chapter, the school hopes to find an instructor who can build on the welcoming and supportive fitness community she has created. For information about teaching fitness or movement classes for adults, contact the Adult School at (510) 594-2717.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For nearly 50 years, Jacqui Birdsong-James has been a beloved part of the Piedmont Adult School community. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-348741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}