Indian Music Meets Western Aerobics for Hot Cross-Cultural Exercise

[Guest guest]

[With thanks to msbauju for sending me this link! ;-) ]

 

SAN JOSE, Calif. (May 5, 2006): I was desperate for a new way to

sweat. A slow spring and a prolonged cold had kept me from my usual

outdoor morning run. I dreaded the monotony of exercise machines but

felt guilty that my pricey gym membership was fast collecting dust. I

officially had fallen off the workout train.

 

Just in the nick of time, I'm sent on an assignment to write about a

growing fitness trend: Bollywood aerobics. Working while getting a

workout? Sign me up!

 

Based on the same high-energy Hindi music and modern choreography

featured in popular films from India's entertainment capital, Mumbai,

Bollywood aerobics meshes mainstream aerobics steps and Western dance

influences - from hip-hop to salsa - with Indian folk and classical

dance.

 

The class sounded like the perfect antidote to my inactivity rut. It

also offered a healthy dose of culture. My only experience with

anything remotely Bollywood was a Sunday afternoon of homemade chai

and melodramatic Aishwarya Rai movies with my friend Ajai, who

shamelessly gushed over the stunning star, known as "the Julia

Roberts of India."

 

My first foray into the world of ethnic dancercize began at the

bustling India Community Center in Milpitas, Calif. For a $5 drop-in

fee, or a $40 unlimited annual pass, I could join an enthusiastic

group of men and women in their 30s and 40s amped for an hourlong

class.

 

The perky young instructor, Samita, got the 30 of us moving in the

cozy dance studio with a 10-minute warm-up of stretches. Her pony

tail bobbed atop her head as she shouted out counts of four over the

booming beats of a Bollywood techno remix.

 

My out-of-breath cohorts later tell me that the class's biggest draw

is the catchy music, a blend of old world and new.

 

"It's the music Indians have grown up with and love," says Anu

Dugyala, a 34-year-old software developer who takes the class at

least twice a week. "It's what I normally listen to. It doesn't even

feel like an hour - the time just flies by."

 

It's not the music I normally listen to, which is what made the class

especially entertaining for me. The contemporary bass lines - similar

to the beats you would hear at a house or hip-hop club - are overlaid

with a chorus of boisterous voices singing poetic lyrics in Hindi,

usually about romantic love, according to www.bollywoodworld.com.

 

For someone who doesn't stray far from jamming out to Mary J. Blige

and Kanye West on my iPod, the tunes got my heart pumping and were a

refreshing change of pace.

 

Samita turned up the heat, and the next 25 minutes was a fast-paced

cardio segment combining basic aerobics footwork, such as the box

step, touch step and grapevine, with swift, rhythmic upper body

movements derived from Indian dance, such as Bhangra. Some of the

guys in the class whooped, clapped and hollered as they danced,

keeping the class upbeat and the energy level high.

 

I was a little lost in the beginning, but after observing Samita and

the others around me, I quickly learned the moves, including

shimmeying shoulders and sharp hip thrusts. Having taken plenty of

aerobics classes before, the footwork came naturally. By the end of

the segment, I had caught on.

 

We spent the remaining 25 minutes doing typical body sculpting and

then cooling down. Classes focus on working different muscle groups

and change from day to day; this time it was all about abs.

 

Lying on our backs with palms to the floor, the most challenging

exercise called for having the knees locked, legs straight and feet

in air, slowly drawing the numbers one through nine both forward and

then backward with our toes. My out-of-shape lower stomach muscles

gave up after number six, but I couldn't wait to come back, master

the dance steps, and get to number nine upon my return.

 

Mona Sampath, senior program manager of Bollywood dance and aerobics

at the community center, says the classes have ballooned from two per

week when she started in January 2003 to 16 classes per week.

 

The demand is so high, she says, that she plans to add more classes

at varying skill levels once the community center moves to a larger

space next door in the coming months. Those attending the classes are

mostly Asian Indians, or of Indian descent.

 

"Anything having to do with India and Bollywood has become popular

and cool and is crossing over into the mainstream," says Sampath, 27,

also the artistic director for the Bay Area Naach Bollywood dance

company. "Bollywood movies are improving in quality, they're being

marketed more widely, and the dance is a fusion of East and West that

people here feel connected to."

 

Bollywood dancercize turned out to be even better than I had

imagined. The spirited music and playful dance moves had swept me

back onto the workout train. I finally found a new way to sweat.

 

---

 

A GUIDE TO BOLLYWOOD AEROBIC DANCE MOVES

 

Here are some typical dance moves from Bollywood aerobics, which

blends mainstream aerobics steps with Indian folk and classical dance

and other Western dance influences, including hip-hop, disco and

salsa:

 

* Bhangra hands: A repetitive motion in which both hands reach toward

the sky at a 45-degree angle to the right and then to the left.

Shoulders move up and down while both hands twist toward the body to

the beat in a motion that mimics screwing in light bulbs. Bhangra is

a type of folk dance and music from India's Northern region of Punjab.

 

* Jhatka: A half-skip, half-jump step that resembles an aerobic move

commonly called ``rocking horse.''

 

* Tumka: A hip shake from side to side, derived from traditional

Indian folk dance.

 

* Pointing: Disco-inspired. Index fingers of both hands point with

the rest of your fingers curled. Arms extend toward the ceiling or

toward the floor, either alternating or together to the rhythm of the

tabla hand drums. Often the movement is a literal interpretation of

the Hindi lyrics of Bollywood music. For example, the singer may be

referring to the heavens, so dancers point upward.

 

* Box step: A basic dance step named after the pattern the feet make

on the floor in the shape of a box or square. It is incorporated in

many types of Western dance and aerobics.

 

SOURCE: The News Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA. Hindi music

meets western aerobics for hot cross-cultural exercise, BY NERISSA

PACIO, Knight Ridder Newspapers

URL: http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/living/14508375.htm