Weekly · beginners · loud and cheerful
Bollywood Dance Classes in Blackpool
Bollywood dance classes in Blackpool for people who would rather grin than look cool. It is the most cheerful hour on the timetable: film choreography stitched together out of bhangra footwork, folk steps and classical hand shapes, taught slowly enough that nobody is lost and quickly enough that nobody is bored. An hour a week in the town centre, ten pounds a class or thirty-two for four.
Your first routine
Send a message and the Bollywood evening comes back.
It runs weekly, five minutes from the front. The evening and the studio address get emailed rather than printed here, so they cannot go stale, and there is a line about footwear in with them.
- Ten pounds for one class, thirty-two for four in a row
- No experience needed and no Hindi required
- Trainers on, phone away, arms up
The essentials
- Where Blackpool town centre studio
- When Weekly, evening — sent by reply
- Length One hour
- Level Beginners upward
- Ages 17 – 75
- Partner Not needed
The class
Nothing understated about it.
Bollywood in a town that never did subtle
Blackpool switches on a million lights every autumn and calls it a modest night out, so a dance style built on colour, volume and enormous arm movements has landed somewhere sympathetic. Bollywood is film choreography, which means it borrows from everywhere: bhangra footwork from Punjab, folk circles, classical hand and eye positions, and whatever the charts happened to be doing the year the song came out. On our Blackpool class timetable it is the one people bring their least confident friend to. It is also the busiest hour on the schedule for people who insist they cannot dance, which tells you something about how forgiving film choreography really is.
It is taught in eights, the way film routines are actually built. A step, then the arms that go over it, then the head and the face that make the difference between doing the move and dancing it — and that last part is where most beginners find the fun, because commitment counts for more here than precision. Nobody needs the language or the film. The room is mixed in every direction: teenagers, parents, people who have seen a thousand of these routines and people who have never seen one. Sections get repeated until they are boring and then repeated a few more times, which is the only reliable way anybody has ever learnt a routine.
The shape of the hour
A warm-up with plenty of shoulder and wrist work, since the arms take more of a beating than the legs do. Then the routine, taught in sections and stacked week by week until a four-week block ends with a whole track danced through, usually twice, because nobody wants to stop. Dancers who like the energy tend to add street dance as well, and hen groups after a private hour of it book the Bollywood hen party instead. Nobody is asked to stand out at the front, and the counts stay audible for as long as anybody still needs to hear them.
Four weeks of it
One eight-count, then a whole song.
The usual build across a block. Nothing rigid about it — a room that wants the chorus again gets the chorus again.
Feet and eights
The basic steps and the count they live in. Slowly, on repeat, until the pattern sits in the legs.
Arms on top
The arm shapes that make Bollywood look like Bollywood, added over footwork that has already gone automatic.
The chorus
The big section: travelling steps, a change of formation and the bit everybody films at a wedding.
Full track
Verse, chorus and ending joined up and run at speed, with faces and shoulders finally allowed in.
Comes free
What an hour of Bollywood does.
You turn up for the routine. The rest is thrown in.
- Cardio disguised as an extremely good time
- Shoulder and arm mobility from all that reaching
- A whole routine you can produce at a wedding
- Counting in eights, which makes every other class easier
- Coordination between arms and legs doing different jobs
- Permission to be completely uncool for sixty minutes
- A weeknight room where the mood is reliably good
- Music you will end up playing on the way home
Straight answers
Bollywood, before you book.
Ten questions that come in about Bollywood dance classes in Blackpool.
IDo I need any experience to try Bollywood?
None. The routine is taught from the first eight-count and repeated more times than anyone thinks necessary, which is precisely why beginners keep up. Regulars use that time to sharpen the same steps rather than to pull ahead.
IIHow much of a workout is a Bollywood class?
It is one of the harder hours on the timetable, though you rarely notice while it is happening. The footwork keeps the heart rate up and the arms spend far longer in the air than they are used to. Everybody takes the water break.
IIIDo I need to know the films or the language?
No. We say what a song is about and what a gesture means where that matters, and the rest is choreography. Half the room has never seen the film and it makes no difference at all to the dancing.
IVIs there anything I need to wear or bring?
Clothes you can lift your arms in, and trainers with some give in them, because the footwork bounces. No costume, no bangles and nothing traditional is expected. We do not supply shoes or props, so whatever you bring is what you dance in.
VWhat kind of Bollywood is it?
Film-style, which is a mixture by definition: bhangra steps, folk patterns such as garba, classical hand positions and a good deal of straight pop. Routines get set to a mix of older classics and current tracks, depending on what a room reacts to.
VIHow much does it cost?
£10 buys one class, paid when you turn up. £32 buys four in a row, which comes to £8 each. There is no membership behind it and nothing to unsubscribe from.
VIIWhere is the class held?
A town-centre studio in Blackpool, an easy walk in from the front and well served by the tram. Your timetable email carries the address; nothing is pinned to this page, because rooms get reshuffled as the schedule grows.
VIIIWill I have to perform?
Not to anybody. The routine gets danced through as a whole room at the end of a block, and that is as close to a performance as it gets. Nobody is put out at the front and nobody is filmed unless the room decides it wants to be.
IXIs it suitable if I am not very coordinated?
That describes most of the room in week one. Bollywood is forgiving because it runs on energy rather than exactness, and because everything is drilled in small pieces before it is joined up. Commitment covers a multitude of missed counts.
XCan I do a single class before committing to four?
Yes. Ten pounds gets you in for one, with nothing attached to it. If you enjoy it, a four-week block starts the following week and works out cheaper per class.