Shall we dance?
2006-06-16
Shall we dance ?
There are more ways to escape the rain and get some exercise than meet the eye. The active and inactive alike often overlook a place where fun and fitness regularly embrace - the dance floor. That's right. Whether it's posture-perfecting tango, the aerobic high stepping of hip-hop, core-cranking hula or ballet, options abound for dancing your way to health.
Consider this: Sashaying to the music can burn as many calories as walking, swimming or cycling - from 200 to 400 per half hour of sustained dance. And if you're not getting the thrice-weekly cardio workout experts recommend, regularly swinging to the beat can help lower your heart rate and blood pressure with activity that scarcely seems like exercise. The side-to-side swings and steps of some dances also strengthen weight-bearing bones such as the tibia, fibula and femur to help prevent osteoporosis. There's also few better ways to waltz your way to recovery from heart, knee or other ailments (with doctor approval). So says the Mayo Foundation for Medical Research and other experts.
Of course, the specific benefits can be as varied as the muscles different dance styles put to the test. If you're in search of a serious workout International Dance Academy's Maya Katsuragi says ballet or jazz dance is a good place to start. IDA's president and founder should know. She started ballet at the age of 3 and was scouted by the American Ballet Company when she was just 15. Katsuragi has since danced for the Washington Ballet Company and as an American Guild of Musical Artists member in New York before setting up shop in Japan four years ago.
"Ballet offers the basics for building muscles," Katsuragi explains. "Another kind of dance that is more fun and aerobic is hip-hop. I'd also have to say floor ballet is very demanding. Everybody lies on the floor, using it to do the movements; it's kind of like Pilates but harder. It really uses a lot of muscles."
IDA has studios in Shibuya, Gakugeidai, Kawaguchi and Machida that teach about 20 different types of dance such as ballet, Hawaiian and tango to an average 2,500 students a month. It also teaches yoga, body conditioning, Pilates and floor ballet/ "It's all connected," she says. "Most teachers spend a lot time on strengthening muscles and stretching with exercises like pushups and sit-ups."
For others, like dance instructor Steve Tomlinson, 42, it's as much about fun and creativity as it is fitness and form. "The benefit of dance is the pleasure of physical well-being - like with sports," he says. "But with dance you have the advantage of creativity and artistic expression. Just like sports you have to stretch and workout. But first you have to love it to do it - and to be good at it." Tomlinson began kicking up his heals on stage, screen and elsewhere in his native New York at the age of 15. Also an accomplished choreographer, he has been teaching hip-hop, tap, jazz and salsa dance for the past five years in Tokyo and Kanagawa. He says his first priority is to teach the "fun-damentals" of dance.
These days hip-hop is the most popular dance form, perhaps owing to its unrestricted style, according to Tomlinson. "The idea of hip-hop is the fun of creating self-satisfying movements," he says, adding that originally street-gang members used it instead of weapons to duel. "With hip-hop you're asking your body for endurance, flexibility and limber joints. Take break dancing: You're contorting the body, spinning on your head - constantly throwing the body around to feel the movement. If you're double jointed that helps. It also works the shoulders, neck and ribs because you're 'popping' those joints," he says euphemistically of the stylistically segmented moves. "You've really got to stretch the muscles. For older people, hip-hop is probably the most demanding - you'll definitely have to go to a gym and get in shape first."
On the opposite end of Tomlinson's teaching spectrum is salsa. "It involves more coordination - with your body and a partner," he says. "But like ball room dancing it's the easiest to learn. You can start to pick it up in the first couple of weeks because the basics are all about knowing which foot goes where." But his favorite style of dance, he says, is the Gregory Hines grace - and lower-leg workout - that comes with tap dance: "Learning the basics is very technical but once you know them its very free. It's all in the legwork. Your legs must be fit as well as your feet. You will feel it in your arches, Achilles, shins, calves, muscles and knees."
Tomlinson admits that with tap dancing beginners should be prepared for sore feet at first. Similar to getting the hang of other forms of dance, however, he adds that this too shall pass. Then the full effects of creative fun - and fitness - kick in. "It's like any sport that you start," he says, "once your body learns the movements it will adjust."
To learn more about the dance classes Steve Tomlinson offers e-mail him at: steve@stevetomlinson.com. Find more about International Dance Academy at: http://www.idajapan.co.jp.
