![]() ![]() “Instead it is wonderful to connect with so many through my class. “There’s no better feeling than expressing myself to an audience on stage, and I miss it,” she tells me. Peck’s classes are upbeat, with music as likely to be from the soundtrack of the film Coyote Ugly as Swan Lake, and sessions designed to suit everyone from novices to more proficient dancers. How about classes in Korean K-pop, Afrofusion and Bollyfunk? Or, feel yourself a prima ballerina? Join New York City Ballet principal dancer Tiler Peck, who hosts tutorials on a Tuesday and Thursday from her parents’ kitchen via Instagram Live. Or, if you fancy a jive, look on YouTube for lessons with Strictly Come Dancing’s Oti Mabuse. Debbie Allen, the 71-year-old Golden Globe winner best known as the dance teacher in Fame, runs excellent Instagram Live sessions. Emma Freud tap-dances with her 93-year-old mother and daughter Scarlett Curtis, 25, via their videos on Instagram. He also embraces the spirit of dance inclusivity.Īnd everyone can dance. Vianen is very careful to credit the originators of his challenges, from Jalaiah Harmon – whose Renegade is a cross-platform dance-challenge hit – to Luis Cervantes for Hollaback Yoncé. Accusations of cultural appropriation are common. TikTok dance trends are not without their detractors, who criticise some viral stars for failing to credit their dance sources. All kinds of people are coming to it, old and young. I wanted to teach what I love to a bigger audience to see people build in confidence. A choreographer and teacher, he started posting dance tutorials at the start of 2020, often breaking down dance challenges to help master a popular routine. To become part of a truly global movement, look to TikTok, particularly the Dutch dancer and choreographer Vincent Vianen. Toomey created it as a “cathartic, music-driven workout experience” and the free movement sections often end in spontaneous laughter or an outburst of tears.ĭance is a form of exercise but also self-expression and therapy ![]() ![]() It perhaps also explains the cult-like, almost tribal following of fitness movements such as Taryn Toomey’s The Class, where freestyle sections encourage an unrestrained and euphoric energy release. “It’s why historically a community dances at weddings or before going into battle – to bond the family.” It is logical that we turn to dance when we may be struggling in isolation: dancing profoundly connects us.” Research by Dr Bronwyn Tarr at the University of Oxford found that in moving with a group, our sense of self expands beyond the limit of our own body to enclose the group. “Moving in synchrony with others creates trust and strengthens bonds. There are biological reasons for dancing reminding you of friendships, continues McGonigal. Dancing takes us into our memories also.” Taking up dance is linked with reducing the risk of dementia, according to a study by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Music can evoke feelings of happiness – and moving to music deepens these feelings as we embody the joy. Stanford University lecturer, health psychologist and The Joy of Movement author Kelly McGonigal says: “Dancing triggers endorphins, but it goes deeper than that. But the benefits go beyond the physical – it’s also a potent natural high, as anyone who has been to drug-free morning raves such as Morning Gloryville can attest. Whether in the privacy of your room, in the euphoric, sweaty mess of a club or as part of a high-adrenaline class, we know dance can be excellent aerobic exercise that burns calories comparable to running. “As a child, I had some harsher things happen in my life and I would go to dance class and forget everything – I still do,” he told a reporter. More used to choreographing videos for Sia or Christine And The Queens and collaborating with Spike Jonze, he started streaming 55-minute Instagram #SweatFest dance sessions instead. Heffington was one of the first to set up online classes when the pandemic began. ![]() Yet, despite this, it is strangely connecting – and cathartic, escapist and fun. “Dance like no one’s watching!” Heffington calls. Props are encouraged (Emma Stone once made a guest appearance, lip-syncing into her hairbrush). The soundtrack is upbeat, the moves accessible, the mood exuberant. There are more than 8,000 of us on this Instagram Live: Heffington fans include Fleabag’s hot priest Andrew Scott and Reese Witherspoon. Twice Grammy-nominated choreographer Ryan Heffington is shimmying towards me across his terrace, and I’m whipping my hair right back. ![]()
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