If that's what Doonya can do for you, then I was definitely in. Priya Pandya, who led the class, is a tiny powerhouse with an enviably fit shape. Students of all shapes and sizes attended the class, which was held at a dance studio in downtown NYC. My terrified feeling disappeared as soon as the infectious music started. So I put on some sneakers and headed to a Doonya class. Since the fitness-dance trend seems to be reaching critical mass, I decided to try it-even though I'm no dancer.
She told me that she's been receiving offers from gyms to replicate the classes. She has even begun offering training courses and certifications to potential Bollywood fitness instructors around the country.Īyesha Khanna, a dancer and choreographer who owns Bollywood Funk in New York City and Jersey City, offers an express dance class that doubles as a fitness class. Chakraborty offers 30 Bollywood–inspired fitness classes per week at her studio and says that on some days she gets up to 50 students in a class. Anything and everything that the population wants gets assimilated into Bollywood."īollywood dance features a lot of high–energy movement, which means it also torches calories and has been marketed as a workout. "India is a huge country with massive cultural diversity. " gets inspiration from all around the world," Ajanta Chakraborty, the founder ofīollywood Groove in Chicago, told me. (Check out this video from the past season of So You Think You Can Dance if you don't believe me.) Bollywood dance is a mash–up of classic Indian folk dances and modern day multicultural influences.
It's the most fun, exuberant thing I've ever seen. If you don't get an immediate rush of endorphins while watching a Bollywood performance, you might be a zombie. The movie Slumdog Millionaire introduced the genre to mainstream America on a mass scale, and the dance competition show, So You Think You Can Dance (hosted by the stylish Cat Deeley), continues to do so. Her win, in addition to prompting some much-needed conversations about racism and xenophobia in our country, also had a more light-hearted effect: It introduced a whole new audience to the joys of a Bollywood performance.īollywood has slowly but surely been gaining popularity in the U.S. Last week, Nina Davuluri became the first Indian-American Miss America.
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