Reese Witherspoon is a ''secret'' hip-hop dancer.

The 39-year-old actress - who has children Ava, 16, and Deacon, 11, with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe, and two-year-old Tennessee with spouse Jim Toth - thinks it is important to stay active and her favourite way of doing so is to groove to her favourite songs.

She said: ''I run, I spin, I do yoga...Physical strength is important.

''I am a bit of a hip-hop dancer. That's sort of a secret a lot of people don't know. I like to dance. I've got a dance in my heart at all times.''

And the 'Hot Pursuit' star stays motivated by working out with a group of friends.

She told Women's Health magazine: ''There's a group of us and I'm like, 'OK girls, what are we doing today?' ''

Reese loves using her success to ''create opportunities for other women to tell their stories'' through her production company, Pacific Standard.

She said: ''I really feel like if I can help one other woman tell her story or help one other woman get a show on a network or make a movie about something that she's passionate about, then I've done my job.

''It's hard to get to the place where I'm at, but it feels really good to be able to use the opportunities that I've had and the relationships that I have in order to create new opportunities for other creative women...

''We have a lot of different projects--women who are astronauts, women who are working on Wall Street--we are just trying to diversify the idea of how you see women on screen and portraying real women, all ethnicities, all ages. It's a really exciting time.''