Bollywood Fitness

Full disclosure: I cannot move my hips, shake my bum or generally look graceful when dancing. I headbang and wave my arms around like a loon so any time I need to follow steps which are quite feminine I feel a bit stupid and seize up so Bollywood dancing was never going to come as second nature to me.

That said Michelle had tagged me in the event and had even agreed to come with me so after a long day I dragged myself along to Bollywood fitness. It’s a This Girl Can event so only women can attend but the class is free.

So the session was at Hobmoor Community Centre in Yardley. After a bit of orienteering as the Facebook map took me to the wrong place, I finally arrived. It’s a decent size hall with a stage so perfect for dance classes.

The lady who ran the class was called Anuska and her company is Aspire dance, she also runs street and hip hop classes. She was a good teacher and kept smiling all the way through the class. She was encouraging and it must have been hard not to laugh at some of the shapes I was throwing. Excellent choice of music too all really catchy with some modern as well as traditional songs.

The class was a mixed bag of women, a few older and a few younger. They all seemed pleasant and I think it’s safe to say most of us had never done Bollywood dancing before.

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The first 40 minutes was Bollywood fitness, this was aerobics style with Bollywood dance moves that i named such as screw in the lightbulbs, make fishy hands and stamp your feet. All really fun but as I had no experience with Bollywood moves I messed them up especially when trying to do hands and feet at the same time.

After the fitness side we had a break and then learnt some Bollywood choegraphy. This bit I really liked and thought she taught it really well. It was quite short but we learnt a routine which I’ll probably end up doing next time I’ve drank too much in a club.

Overall I definitely preferred the dancing rather than the fitness side of it. I found that after 40 minutes of the fitness, I still wasn’t tired or out of breath which would be good for people who are getting into exercise.

If I was going to improve the class I would recommend doing the dancing side first, as repeating the moves gave me more confidence and I think I could have managed better in the aerobic section.

Overall I think I would go back to a Bollywood dance class but I think I personally prefer faster aerobics classes.

Rankings in comparison to Roller Derby

Fun – Was nice to try a new style of aerobics but personally I think putting the dancing and aerobics meant I didn’t get enough of either.

Value for money – Free!

Join-ability – This class was only open to women, I understand that This Girl Can are trying to encourage women into sport however if it was the other way round I’d be livid. Aside from that, the teacher made it easy to follow and gave different levels which made it accessible. Her usual classes would get top marks.

Spam-ability – I’d recommend it to people that are new to aerobics but would probably suggest one of Aspires other dance classes if you wanted to learn the moves properly.

Total of 9/20 Overall I think I would go back to a Bollywood dance class but I think I personally prefer faster aerobics classes.

If you want to try it for yourself then the details of the next 2 free classes can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/601479463333507/

Aspire also runs street dance, hip hop and contemporary dance classes. Their website is: http://www.aspire-dance.co.uk (some photos have been used from this website)

For details about our next review:

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