Dutch model Doutzen Kroes is happiest on the dance floor with her friends, getting a solid workout while having fun. Kroes, 39, shared a picture of herself wearing an orange shirt and black workout pants, flashing the peace sign. “I love dancing. It’s like my therapy being in class dancing while letting go, out of the mind and into the body and enjoying the flow!” she captioned the post. Here’s what Kroes’s fitness and wellness routine looks like.
Kroes developed a love for dance-based workouts aftering dancing in a lingerie campaign. “I was luckily introduced to Vincent Vianen who is an amazing dancer and choreographer,” she told Vogue France. “When I was asked to shoot lingerie while dancing, it was something where I was really faced with my own insecurities. I am going to continue to dance because I am going to be the first one on the dance floor now. One of the most important things Vincent taught me was to let go and to not think because I overthink and when you dance you have to let go, enjoy the music and really feel it. It’s really fun to bring the best out of yourself and compete with yourself and it’s getting better and better.”
Kroes swears by ballet workouts and Pilates for a strong core and long, lean muscles. “When I come to New York, I always try to see Mary Helen Bowers because I love to do my ballet exercises with her. When I do Ballet Beautiful, I feel muscles the day after that I didn’t even know I had. It lengthens my body and changes my posture,” she told Vogue France. “[Pilates] strengthens my core and because of that I feel very strong and it changed my posture. Pilates is so much harder than it looks and something Cheryl always tells me is that I have to make it look like it’s easy.”
Organic fruits and vegetables make up a huge part of Kroes’s diet. “Every morning I mix an orange, grapefruit, and lemon with wheatgrass or green powder in the blender,” she told Vogue. “I make it for my son and husband. It’s very sour. It doesn’t taste good at all, but I do it because it’s healthy. My mom grows wheatgrass in her garden and my son goes there and he chews on it and thinks it’s gum! Kids are amazing—you can teach them anything and they’ll eat anything. Of course every kid is different. My son didn’t have any sugar until he was 3 years old. Growing up, my mom gave me really healthy food. Everything was fresh from the garden and organic before the organic hype. I still eat mostly organic food.”
Kroes was thrilled to play Amazon warrior Venelia in Wonder Woman. “I was a fan of Wonder Woman growing up—I loved the fact that she was as strong and as smart as Superman,” she told Glamour. “I was able to do my own riding, and had several weeks of combat and weapons training for the scenes on the beach. I’ve always ridden horses, but learning to handle a sword at a full gallop was pretty intense. But I loved every minute of it!”
Kroes believes beauty and happiness are one and the same. “It sounds so clichéd but it definitely chimes from within,” she told Harper’s Bazaar UK. You can put as much make-up on as you want, and hide certain things, but it’s cyclical. So, when you have gratitude and feel good, make-up emphasizes how you feel already. I see products as a tool to look even better and then because you look even better then you feel even better – it’s a positive circle… I’m discovering by practicing gratitude – that when you feel grateful and find that in the smallest of moments you then find it over and over again. You feel happier and happier and happier – because you continue to find it everywhere. It’s a really nice way of living.”