Aerobics, it seems, is old news. More and more Irish people are turning instead to dance classes as a means of keeping fit. And there is a vast array of styles to choose from - ballroom, salsa, jive, tango, ballet, hip hop, African, flamenco. Whatever it is, you can be sure there's somebody out there offering classes. A resurgence of interest among teenagers has been stimulated by the success of Irish pop acts such as Boyzone and B*witched. Meanwhile, older dance students have simply discovered that keeping fit through dance is more enjoyable than ploughing away on a treadmill or exercise bike.
Adult Ballet
In the main part of Phibsborough gym in Dublin, people work out vigorously to the accompaniment of booming pop music. Across the hall, Miriam Bowe's ballet class is an altogether more restrained affair. Eight participants line the walls, holding on to a wooden bar while extending arms gracefully and performing elaborate leg manoeuvres. It may seem gentle, but it's not easy - especially when you're trying to move in time to brisk xylophone music.
The class is made up of seven women and one man, all in their 20s and 30s - and not a tutu in sight. Bowe's students vary from week to week. Many of the women would have attended ballet classes as children, but some have never danced before. "I did ballet from when I was four until I was about 16," says Liz, one of the students. "I gave it up for six years, then decided it was time to go back." She has no ambitions to be a performer. "I do it because I love dancing and it's a most enjoyable form of exercise. I hate aerobics."
Bowe (21) is a graduate of the Rambert dance school in London. She claims ballet can be "a little bit addictive . . . because it gives you that awareness of your body. There's such an amazing technique to it. In ballet, if your ribs are out of place, if your shoulders are raised, it can affect your whole body."
The one man in the class, Hope, is an actor from Arizona. He says he's become involved to help his acting. "Just to help with movements and to be a little more graceful, to use space better." He has been attending for a month and intends to stick with it. "You never usually see results in the first month or two. But I can see that I will definitely benefit from the class."
Men sometimes make inquiries about the class, but they're reluctant to turn up. "I've had four men phone about classes in the last two weeks, and none of them have turned up. One guy called me, a rugby player, and I knew he wouldn't come. He was saying, `I really want to go, I've always wanted to do it'. He wanted to know if there were any other men there, and at the time there weren't. He never came, and it's a shame," says Bowe.
The class doesn't appear too strenuous, though there are some elaborate jumps and twists toward the end. "But the more advanced you get, the quicker classes get. I go to the gym and I used to jog for a while, but nothing works out your body like ballet does," Bowe adds. "You're standing there and you have to think about everything, from what your fingers are doing to where your toes are on the floor."
Adult ballet classes are held in Phibsborough gym every Saturday, from 10.0011.00 a.m. For details, contact Miriam Bowe (086-8453145)
Funk
`Seven, eight, kick right, kick step, kick left, fall again." Jane Shortall's instructions sound bemusingly elaborate to an outsider, but most of her students pick up the MTV-style moves fast. There are just a few lurking at the back who look thoroughly confused.
The class is at the YMCA on Aungier Street in Dublin. Much of the dancing is done to loud hip hop music, belting out from a PA system, with one song running into the next so there's no time to draw breath. The students - a mix of male and female, teenagers and adults - are all dripping sweat. It's what Shortall terms "cardio-funk".
"The main thing I teach is funk, which is a blend of street and African," she says. "Ballet is much more muscle control, where funk is very loose and let-go. It's like a downbeat - everything has to be very relaxed in your body. And the thing is, not everybody can do ballet, but I believe everybody can do funk."
"The big emphasis is on fitness - I make sure that people get a workout and that they leave having got a sweat up. It's like getting on a treadmill, except you're dancing and having fun."
Ciara has been taking funk dance classes for a month-and-a-half. She never danced before, but looks confident going through the routines. "It's brilliant. I didn't want to just do an aerobics class, I wanted something a bit different."
Simon is a South African now living in Dublin. His only dance experience came from regularly going to raves. He signed up for funk out of curiosity. "I saw the ad one day and thought I'd give it a bash. Felt so stupid I didn't want to do it again - legs all over the place. But I got talked into coming back, and now I love it." Besides, he says, "you can't rave all your life."
Another student, Baz, remarks on the large number of men who take the class. "There's nothing non-masculine about hip hop. Gay men and straight men feel happier about this style, I'd say. Because men don't want to do girlish moves."
Shortall feels interest in dance has increased considerably in Ireland, partly because of Riverdance and the success of pop acts such as Boyzone and B*witched. The interest is "especially among young kids because of the pop stuff. That if they can do the dance steps they can be in the next boy band or girl band."
Are the students tempted to use their routines outside class? According to Simon, "if you're a guy and you do it in a club, you'll get chucked out. If you're a girl and you do it, you're amazing."
For more information on Jane Shortall's classes, contact the YMCA, Aungier Street (01-4782607)
`Dancing The Rainbow'
`Dancing the Rainbow" instructors Antoinette Spillane and Anne O'Hanlon promise in their advertisements to use "fragrance, colour, music and imagination to reconnect with the elements earth, water, fire and air in a sensual and playful way". So they're not the people to see if you want to brush up on your two-step or your cha-cha.
Spillane, who started out as a yoga teacher, regards dance as a means of free expression. She describes seeing a young girl dancing in the rain: "She skipped along splashing her feet in all the puddles singing a loud, out-of-tune song and swiping at the wet branches to make them rain on her." This is what she calls "the essence of creative freedom".
Anne O'Hanlon worked for years as a singer and dancer before becoming involved in Dancing the Rainbow. "We normally try to be what `outside' wants us to be," she says, "whether that's parents or society . . . People have their little dreams of dancing, but they've been relegated to the audience."
Spillane says they encourage students "to be stupid and ugly in different parts of their bodies - just to get in and make as many movements as they can". Dancing the Rainbow draws heavily on the eastern concept of chakras - the idea is that the body has seven distinct energy centres - and Spillane sees dance as a means of becoming familiar with these centres.
For example: "The second chakra includes the sexual organs and spreads out over the hips. It's also in the wrists and ankles. If you move these parts of your body, you can do nothing but Egyptian movements. Egyptian music grew out of the knowledge of that energy centre."
Spillane and O'Hanlon have taught adults of all ages and physical conditions. "We've had people come in who can't move their hips, people who are locked in their shoulders," says O'Hanlon. "The minute they start moving they think, `If so-and-so could see me they'd think I was ridiculous' - they've got this judgment thing going on. And within weeks they totally free up. The child in them comes out."
Surely there are people who can't overcome the initial embarrassment? "Yeah, there are," says Spillane, "but we go to great lengths to create an atmosphere of safety. Over the course of a day or a weekend people become more relaxed with each other."
Antoinette Spillane and Anne O'Hanlon will be holding a demonstration class in Dublin on August 7th. They are starting a "Dancing the Rainbow" teacher training course in October. For more information, contact Anne O'Hanlon (045-401641 or 045-404933)
Belly Dancing
It may be cold and wet outside, but for an hour every week the belly-dancing students at Litton Lane in Dublin escape to a more exotic world. No tracksuits or Lycra - the 10 women present are all decked out in Eastern gear. Short tops, long colourful skirts and "shimmy scarves". The scarves are made up of a mass of small metal coins, which hiss furiously as the hips gyrate.
The class is taught by Yasmina, an Algerian dancer who has been living for some time in Dublin. "I've been teaching here for five or six years," she says. "I started with only four girls in the first class. Then it just spread. It's become popular. All together now, I probably have 30 students."
Belly dancing had its origins in the East, and can be found in various forms from Turkey to north Africa to India and beyond. "The idea is to isolate your movements - if you're moving your toes, just move your toes and nothing else. So it's not as easy as you think. When I started, I thought belly dancing was just about the belly, but it's not. If you really study the dance, everything is working."
The dance is intended only for women, and the class draws women of all ages. "They're interested in it because it's so feminine. They think, `I'd love to do it but I'm a bit overweight'. And it's silly - you don't have to be skinny or to have a big training like ballet. Anybody can start at any age."
Karen is one of Yasmina's most experienced students. "I've been doing it for about eight years," she says. "When I first went along all I knew was what I'd seen in the movies, but it had always appealed to me. I loved the dress, the colour, the way the dance is so beautiful to watch. "At the end of the class I feel revived. You come in wrecked after working all day, do a class and feel brilliant afterwards, because it gives you energy."
Although the class looks relaxed, Yasmina insists that it can be surprisingly strenuous. "It's not what people think, because they come out of the class and they're knackered. It gives you a good workout. You have to concentrate to learn the technique, but when you have some technique you can just play the music and dance with it," adds Yasmina. You feel so free and so much better."
Belly dancing classes are held every Tuesday evening in Dublin city centre. For more information, contact Yasmina (01-4530680)