Berkshire Fitness Scene : Just Jhoom!

It's been some time since I've tried a new activity locally but Just Jhoom! has been on my list for some time. Just Jhoom! (meaning "just dance" in Hindi) is a Bollywood-inspired dance fitness class, which brings together aerobics and mindful movement, drawing on a range of dance styles from Indian classical dance to Bhangra. I would say that it is to Indian dance what Zumba is to Latin styles - a fun and friendly class that makes a dance style accessible.

I love the dance scenes in Bollywood movies and have even had a go at dancing at the wedding celebrations of a friend of mine in India. I certainly felt the part on that occasion in my bangles and henna. On this occasion though, I dusted off my dance trainers and took myself to Yateley School for a Just Jhoom! taster session.

Been a while since I got to wear these!

Annabel, our teacher, gave us a little background info on the class and what to expect before showing us some of the hand positions that we would use in the routines. Arm and hand movements are part of what give the Bollywood dancing it's elegance and help to tell the story, so we were encouraged to try to incorporate these if we felt we could.

After a gentle warm up we started to learn some routines. We covered around seven routines during the class, each set to a different Bollywood track and none too complicated. Annabel would show us the movements we'd be using before each one and gave us the opportunity to practice before we put moves to music for real. The most memorable track and routine was probably a sort of Indian version of the Macarena! It's very hard not to smile when you're dancing to the music, even if you're mixing up "lotus" and "bee" hands, it's so uplifting!

The class was friendly, low impact and a lot of fun. You certainly don't need to have any dance experience to get involved, just some comfy clothes and footwear that you can move about in. I could have put a bit more effort in if I'd wanted to but I just enjoyed moving my body and trying a new dance style.

The Jhoomers demonstrating "bee" hands

Annabel runs the classes as courses of six, other instructors run them as blocks of ten and some locations offer pay as you go. There are plenty around so if this is something you would like to try then just head to the Class Finder section of the Just Jhoom website to find your nearest class.

Berkshire Fitness Scene : M.TV Dance

I'm still absolutely buzzing from a new class I tried last night. It was my first foray into discovering the Berkshire fitness scene. My aim is to find out what my local area has to offer outside of a standard gym, yoga, zumba and BodyWhatever classes. I'm not saying that these aren't great facilities to have but with the ever increasing number of fancy studios and classes I see advertised for the London area I was keen to see if I could find similar things that didn't involve having to fork out £16 for a train ticket.

After a little web searching I came up with a list of possibilities and decided to try a dance fitness class called M.TV Dance. Actually I had decided to try Bokwa, another style of dance fitness class, but was told it had been changed and the online timetable not updated. So M.TV Dance it was. The premise is simple enough; much like zumba you are led by an instructor through some routines drawing on a variety of commercial dance styles to classic and up to date chart and dance tracks. You learn some of the moves in the videos and work up a sweat. This appealed to me particularly as I used to take salsa, adult tap and modern jazz classes. I really really miss it but I'd yet to find a class or instructor that I liked enough to go back to it.

The classes are run by Fizzy Jamz who seem to be exclusive to the Berkshire area. Most of their classes take place at Reading University SportsPark and are open to members and non members alike. I was a bit nervous that I would be the eldest person there, given it was on campus, but thankfully that was not the case. Our 55 minute class was lead by "Jammer Jade" a petite, smiley and blond package of energy. You can see her in the promo video; she was awesome! We warmed up with some dance moves that drew on Latino styles and a bit of Oops Upside Your Head type fun before grabbing a drink and getting into the real fun.

The studio has wall to wall mirrors so you can see how you measure up to Jade's amazing choreography, and fancy disco lights set the mood perfectly. The music was one long mix of tracks from Michael Jackson, Britney, Madonna, Lady Gaga and more. Over the course of the class we started to learn the routing, but in a way that didn't feel like learning. We'd do a couple of moves, add something on, repeat some sections, do something else, add that on somewhere, repeat. It was fantastic and Jade somehow managed to teach the whole class mainly with actions and facial expressions. The class culminated it putting the routine we'd learnt to N-Sync's Bye Bye Bye. Yes we almost looked like that… honest!

It was an amazingly fun class. I sang most of the way through, worked up a sweat and claimed my first stamp on my fizz tank card. I am now a Dance Jammer Junkie people! FizzyJamz run a loyalty scheme which rewards you with gifts and prizes the more classes you do. Given the number of classes that take place in a week you could conceivably fill the card in a little over a week, trying different styles of class. 

The SportsPark is a great facility and I can see myself going back there for other classes for sure. And I'll be trying Bokwa another time.

Classes are £6 for non-members at the SportsPark and you can find the timetable for FizzyJamz classes here.