Fitness is fun with a taste of Bollywood

Bollywood dancing is now a familiar sight on western TV and cinema screens. The elegant, graceful and vivacious gestures depict a story to any audience, no matter what language they speak.

The style of dance has inspired and intrigued millions of the films’ worldwide viewers. And now Debbie Baker, who has run Egyptian belly dancing classes in Bishop’s Stortford for 12 years, has expanded her repertoire to teach Bollywood fitness classes.

I went along to Debbie’s first session at the Havers Community Centre to have a go. While I’m certainly not a gifted dancer – I have about as much elegance and grace as a new-born giraffe – I’m always keen to have a go at new things.

When I arrived at the session with our photographer Vikki Lince, Debbie gave us both a very warm welcome; her bubbly demeanour instantly put me at ease, and any nerves I had about embarrassing myself quickly faded away.

I gathered that most of the other women taking part in Debbie’s Bollywood dance classes signed up to take part in the whole six-week course, but a few others just paid for the single class, on a pay-as-you-go basis, which budding Bollywood belles are still able to do until the last class on Tuesday, March 27.

When we began, Debbie introduced herself to the group and told us that her dancing name was Samirah. We were each given a colourful hip scarf to wear, which instantly made the room brighter and more vibrant.

Samirah explained that Bollywood – a mash-up of cinema and classic Indian culture – is the world’s largest film industry in terms of the number of films produced; it releases more than 1,000 films each year, more than double the number of movies produced by Hollywood.

We began by learning the hand gestures: fan, fist, flag, bee and lotus. Bollywood dance choreography blends these hand signs with body movements to embellish the story.

We began by doing a warm up, and then a pulse-raiser, to get into the spirit of things.

Samirah had previously given everyone a sheet with the list of music on, so anyone who took part in the class could download the tracks when they got home if they wanted to practice in their spare time, or if they just really enjoyed the music that may have previously been unfamiliar.

We began learning the first routine, combining the hand gestures with the high-energy actions. I could see why the classes were marketed as ‘Bollywood dance fitness’ – each routine showcasing the bold and extroverted moves provided its own cardio workout.

I really liked how reassuring Samirah was throughout the class; she kept telling the group that it didn’t matter if anyone got the moves a little muddled, which I did, many times. But because of Samirah’s gentle nature and how friendly the group was, I didn’t feel all that stupid afterwards.

With Samirah at the head of the class, and the rest of the group following her example, the hour-long session quickly melted away.

My favourite part of any workout is the cool down at the end of the session – you feel like you’ve really achieved something, and you can breathe a sigh of relief – and Samirah’s was no exception.

It involved some yoga-like stretches which I really enjoyed because I am something of a stereotypical millennial, shamelessly obsessed with ‘yogi’ culture.

Samirah concluded the session with a solo performance of the routine she would be teaching the class the following week.

The song Zoobi Doobi, taken from the 2009 film 3 Idiots, was catchy and upbeat – probably my favourite of the whole evening – and Samirah performed it with such pizazz, it really was fun to watch and it gave an excellent flavour of what was to come in future classes.

It costs £8 to take part in one of Samirah’s Bollywood dance fitness sessions. For more information, call 07904 198309 or email samirah@bellybelles.co.uk.