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Dance for fitness
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Learning a dance form is the in thing to do. Many are biting the bait and realising the benefits of the time-tested form of fitness
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Photo: M. Vedhan
SHALL WE DANCE Youngsters are now getting hooked to dance
Every step you take counts in making you fit. These steps needn’t confine you to walking, jogging or running. You can shake a leg with your friends, not realising its inherent benefits. Television reality shows take credit for dance studios tha
t are mushrooming across the country, but what they’ve done, unintentionally, is make the young and the old twist and turn to the beats and get hooked to a time-tested mode of fitness. “Dance is a great means of fitness,” endorses actress Sandhya Mridul. A keen contestant on Jhalak Dikhlaja, she says, “Some people find working out in a gym boring. Dance, on the other hand, makes you fit and toned. I’ve lost six kgs in the last three months. I guess it helps release some good hormones.”
Dance is a wholesome fitness routine that also boosts your confidence, feels choreographer Deepak, best recognised for his association with Nach Baliye and now Jhalak Dikhlaja. Deepak says, “Those who haven’t danced earlier start the classes with reluctance. Once they get into the rhythm and understand the moves, they are ready to learn. An hour of dance a day is all you need to stay fit and active.”
Early this year, students of International School of Business got to unwind with a salsa course. Katya Virshilas, who trained Jennifer Lopez and Richard Gere for “Shall We Dance”, came in to teach students of Shiamak Davar’s Institute. Away from the spotlight on western dance forms, ardent lovers of classical dance vouch by dance as a means of expression and fitness. Kavita Gulecha, who teaches Kathak and Indian folk dances like the Rajasthani Gumar says, “A basic knowledge of classical dance teaches you the best form of movement and rhythm and makes you adapt to other dance forms easily. It helps you take up stretching exercises better.”
Interestingly, she points out that while youngsters here want to master salsa and jives, NRIs who visit India from August to November are keen to learn classical dance. Harsha Siddam, a college student is a trained Kathak dancer who got bitten by the salsa bug. “I joined a crash course at the insistence of my friend. We enrolled in classes chose classes between 7 and 8 a.m. before college hours. We started this for fun and then got hooked,” she says.
“The best thing about dance is you don’t realise you are working out,” says S. Puja. Having spent a few days rehearsing for a programme recently, she says, “I managed to knock off the extra kilos that had been bothering me for a while.”
The dance fever isn’t over yet. Reality shows apart, there’s Adnan Sami and Alisha Chinai crooning for “Mumbai Salsa”, a complete dance film.
SANGEETHA DEVI DUNDOO
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