Delhi: Bollywood Dance Classes Tour

Two hours, and you will be sore tomorrow

A proper class with a choreographer rather than a photo opportunity. You dress in Bollywood-style costume — sequins, dupattas, the lot — and learn actual routines.

What you will learn

Bhangra, from Punjab: shoulder-driven, arms up, and far more aerobic than it looks. It began as a harvest dance and the energy is the point rather than precision.

Garba, from Gujarat: circular, done in a ring, with the claps and the turns building in tempo. During Navratri whole cities do this for nine nights running.

And film choreography, which is what people actually mean by Bollywood dance — a hybrid of classical Indian forms, folk, jazz and hip-hop that changes every few years and is instantly recognisable.

Your instructor will break a routine down step by step to a song you probably know, and by the end of two hours you will have something you can do from start to finish.

Why it is more interesting than it sounds

Indian film dance is not incidental to the films — it carries the plot, and the vocabulary is borrowed from kathak and bharatanatyam, which are two thousand years old. The hand positions you will be taught are mudras with actual meanings, and a good instructor will tell you which.

Who it works for

No dance experience needed and none expected. Families, couples, groups of friends, and solo travellers who do not mind looking silly for a bit — which is most of the fun.

Children take to it faster than adults, without exception.

Practical

Two hours, with costumes provided.

Wear something you can move in underneath and bring trainers or bare feet — the floor is sprung studio flooring, not stone.

Bring water. Delhi studios are air-conditioned but two hours of bhangra is two hours of bhangra.

Photographs and video are usually taken and sent afterwards.