The joy of Aunty Ji

I wanted to share this with you all. I go to Bollywood dance classes once a week for the exercise but also because it's terrific fun. This week surpassed all previous weeks, however, because of the song we're dancing to. Aunty Ji is apparently a huge hit in India and once you listen to it, you'll know why. It's a bizarre Bollywood rock'n'roll track that makes you twitch and want to move.

The message is pretty simple too. He wants Aunty Ji (a familiar yet respectful term for a women of your parent's age) to get up and dance!

A year to do new things: I go to a pole dancing class

Last week I got invited by some dance class friends to attend a casual pole dancing, just for kicks. I had always wanted to try pole dancing so I agreed to join them at The Pole Gym on Friday night for a fun new experience.

Step one: dress appropriately

If you look on the website of any pole dancing class, they ask you to wear as little as possible to the class. Skin sticks to the pole when fabric does not, making it easier for you to do the moves and less likely to fall in a cottony, messy heap at the base of your exercise stick. Suggested attire is shorts; short shorts. Hot pants-like short shorts.

Now, I don’t own any short shorts. At least not ones I can wear around people. I have one pair that are like thick cotton high-waisted knickers, the kind you wear around the house on hot days when you really want to be in underwear but you live with a housemate, not someone who regularly sees you naked.

So off to Target I went to buy cheap exercise short shorts to pose in when dancing around a pole. Unfortunately, boring shops like target don't offer much choice for exercise knickers. It was teenagers' shorts, which were short enough, and had sequins!

or cut off leggings:

I opted instead for ghastly but cheap cotton shorts that could be tucked up. Now I was prepared.

Step two: the class

After work and a potentially injudicious glass of punch at Bacchus, I drove all the way to Lawnton for the class at the Pole Gym. This small but high space contained a forest of poles, mirrors and a rack of clothes for sale blazoned with 'Invert Your Thinking' and 'Live Fast Pole Hard'. The Pole Gym holds classes in pole dancing or pole fitness, aerial hoop and aerial silks. There was a class on when I arrived, pole sculpt, which I was informed by a girl in the later class was 'torture'.

A year to do new things? I try Irish Dancing.

Last night I tried Irish dancing for the first time in my life and I have to be honest – it was so much more fun than I had anticipated.

I don’t know why I was surprised. Ireland / Irish sort of equates to fun in my mind. Even though the one time I was in the Ireland I got the worst case of food poisoning of my life, I forgive, because Irish culture is disarmingly charming.   

Anyways, I go to weekly dance classes that are fantastic fun and you should come along. At the start of the year, my teacher organises a ‘Dance Detox’. Two hours of dance class a night for five nights, to get us back into the year, detox after the excesses of the holiday season and of course, have fun. Each night there are two different types of dance class – belly dancing, ballet, break dancing, Bollywood, latin dancing, etc. So over a week, you try out 8 to 10 different dance styles.  Last night it was a contemporary jazz routine to Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ followed by Irish dancing!

The Irish dancing class was taken by Kate from Lynagh Irish Dancing Studio. She started us out slow with three basic steps which we strung together to do a traditional party / festival dance in a huge circle. The steps got faster and faster until we were a jigging, giggling mess of a class. It was terrific fun!

After an hour of Irish dance I expected my thighs to ache but I had to concentrate so hard on the steps that my legs forgot to hurt. Not that the steps were complicated, they were just new and different and fast!

That’s what I love about going to dance classes – unlike going to the gym, it’s a mind and body work out. The concentration required to ‘leap 2-3’ correctly, in time and in configuration was so much more of a work out that I was anticipated.

If you’re in Brisbane and want to try ‘Dance Detox’ it’s on for the rest of this week at the Old Museum. Check out the Facebook page here.

Otherwise, my regular dance classes start next week and new comers are always welcome. It’s fun and easy and a great workout. Bollywood Connections website.

Finally, if you want to try Irish dancing, Kate from Lynagh Irish Dancing was a great teacher.

Finally, for your amusement...

A quick film review: Dhoom 2

You've never heard of Dhoom 2, but it was a big hit back in 2006. It's a Bollywood film, born out of the crazy world of the world's largest film industry (seriously – so much bigger than Hollywood) and it encapsulates everything that is wonderful about Bollywood.

I described Dhoom 2 to a work colleague as The Italian Job meets Fast and the Furious but with dance numbers. It's so much better/worse than that.

The plot is very simple. Master thief defies police until know-it-all Mumbai Assistant Commissioner gets on the case and there ensues a typical cat-and-mouse chase with hot women thrown in.

What most people object to about Bollywood is the sheer ridiculousness of most movies. It's true, you can't watch a typical Bolly film without a sense of humour and a willingness to just go along for the ride. Questions of continuity or plausibility cannot be allowed to enter your mind. The opening sequence of Dhoom 2 has the master thief attempting to steal the crown of England from an incredibly unattractive 'Queen' (Queen Elizabeth II, not articulated) on a beat-up looking train going through the desert of Namibia. And that's not even where implausible starts. However, it is followed up by one of the best titles sequences ever full of sweaty writhing bodies in an amazing dance sequence. Who the hell cares about Lizzie's jewels after that?

The dance numbers are a problem for a lot of potential movie-goers. Let me explain; Bollywood films are not allowed to show direct physical contact such as kissing on screen. Material that may be offensive is not allowed to be shown, including sex and violence. So where in your typical western movie there would be a love scene, in Bollywood there is a song and dance number in which the leads express their love through song. In dance they can also touch each other and get right up close – but no kissing, never any kissing. Interestingly, Dhoom 2 does contain a kiss and shooting and mild violence. They were charged with indecency for the kiss but it passed the censors eventually and was included in the international release.

So Dhoom 2 is a great terrible movie you will really like provided you can overlook certain issues like believability and instead just enjoy the spectacle, the shirtless men / bikini-clad women and the shear fun of it all.

Five for Friday no.13

Brisbane has our own 100% local online shoe store. I'm so proud!

Zombies, Run! There is an app you can buy that makes running … fun … shudder … by making it an interactive game in which as soon as you step out of your door you're running from the zombies and fighting for your life. Sounds cool but it's not enough to convert me: I don't run.

Who doesn't love a good bookshelf or beautiful library website? I know I do, even though they fill me with bitter seething envy. So, bookshelf site!


A short history of the Calendar. For those of you who weren't in the know.



Slow motion ballet. Two dancers from the Staatsballett Berlin slowed to 1000 frames per second accompanied by Radiohead's Everything in Its Right Place.

The Art of Dancing by Luke and Lewis

Luke and Lewis bad dance through the advent calendar. Best thing ever this December.

December 1st - 'Woman' by Wolfmother from lewisnluke on Vimeo.

Watch them do a new dance every day for your dose of cheer.