Tri-City moves to Bollywood aerobics

WHEN CHITRA SELVARAJ teaches aerobics, her feet evoke Jane Fonda, but her arms and hands — shaking, swaying, fingers pointing skyward — are straight out of India.

Selvaraj is a technology professional by day, but at night she teaches Bollywood aerobics, a fast-growing exercise regimen spreading from the South Bay to the Tri-City area.

"In India, it's every little girl's dream to become a Bollywood actress," she said.

Now as Indian people become health-conscious, they want to work out to music they can relate to, said Mona Sampath, who founded Naach, a Bollywood dance and aerobics company affiliated with the India Community Center in Milpitas.

Naach, Hindi for dance, started in 2003 with seven classes, mostly in Milpitas. This year, it will hold 45 classes throughout the Bay Area.

The daily aerobic workouts at the India Community Center have drawn a strong Fremont contingent, Sampath said, and last year the company opened shop in Newark, offering aerobics at Fitness 2000.

Another Bollywood dance company, STEPZ, expanded to Fremont this year from its base in San Jose and Palo Alto. "We see a huge untapped market throughout the East Bay," said STEPZ owner, choreographer and instructor Shalini Dodds.

The regimen's appeal is all about the music. Instead of "Sweating to the Oldies" or Top 40 hip-hop, Bollywood aerobics incorporates high-energy songs from some of India's most popular films, blending storylines with over-the-top dance sequences.

"You imagine yourself dancing on-screen," said Nivi Gupta, of Fremont, who started this year at STEPZ. "It's more like going to a club than exercising."

Most songs are remixed and dance numbers re-choreographed to maximize the aerobic impact, Sampath said. While there are dance steps, much of the Bollywood movements she choreographs are in the upper body, most notably the arms and hands.

"Those gestures help tell the story," she said.

There is no formula for a Bollywood aerobics class. Naach combines a 25-minute dance workout with some mat exercises. STEPZ keeps participants on their feet and focuses on learning moves to a few songs.

"You sweat like a pig," Gupta said.

She fits the mold of a typical Bollywood aerobics enthusiast — a professional woman in her 30s raised in India watching Bollywood movies.

For Madhu Iyer, a fitness guru who moved to Fremont a few years ago, aerobics class is as much about meeting peers as it is about getting in shape.

"It's helped me get to meet the community," she said.