Flamenco for body and soul

FITNESS

That watching a flamenco class in progress immediately makes you re-align your posture and lift your chin is a good sign. It's probably the sight of the highly articulated arms that frame a very arched body.

At the Arts in Motion studio in Mumbai, the first batch of Indian flamenco students are fine-tuning their craft to take an assessment after eight months of rigorous instruction. Maria del Sol from Allegria Malta is instructing them in Alianza Flamenca, a method of learning flamenco in detail through a syllabus.

There is a theory that suggests gypsies from Rajasthan took strains of kathak across to Andalusia, incorporating influences from Persia and North Africa along the way. "The footwork has similarities to kathak, the lament in flamenco music is similar to an alaap... there are plenty of similarities," says del Sol.

And so one imagines Indians should take to the dance fairly easily. And the benefits are compelling "" style, grace, and rhythm, they're all up for grabs. The hand-clapping movements combined with the complex patterns of footwork also teach coordination. The greatest benefits, though, are to posture "" the belly is always tucked in, the back always arched. "You could compare the stance to that of a matador; he's always upright, his chest is out and neck is straight," says del Sol.

Flamenco also works wonderfully as catharsis for the soul, if that's what you need. It's an extremely expressive dance. Anger, fear, hatred, love are all tolerated. The stomping can be purging too, so can the repeated jaleo (shouts of encouragement) that also happen to exercise the vocal chords.

And like any dance, flamenco is great for weight loss, although as a technically complex classical dance form, you might find that there are easier ways to lose weight; a complete education in flamenco will take up to seven years. "If you want to lose weight and have fun, try salsa or any other social dance," suggests Aanchal Gupta, the proprietor of Arts in Motion.

There are other incentives that might draw you to flamenco. That it's one of the few dances that is made fun by the use of props like the castanets, the shawl, the fan and the swishing skirt. That it's not ageist; flamenco dancers don't lose their beguiling charm when they turn 30. Or 50. It also tolerates a greater variance of body types than most other dances.