dance
OPERATOR
INDEPENDENT
Kate Cracknell investigates the boom in dance-based exercise, and looks at the different business models for health clubs and leisure centres wanting to tap into this trend
throughout all walks of life, leading to a whole string of highly popular dance- based TV programmes and a massive uplift in the number of people wanting to give dance a go.
“What Strictly Come Dancing has
done is make dancing more socially acceptable,” says Greg Gillespie, principal of The London Academy of Dance. “In our grandparents’ generation, ballroom was their clubbing. Now people are going back to that sort of dancing for fun – salsa clubs for social nights out, for example.”
O
ne, two, cha cha cha. The
impact of Strictly Come
Dancing has been felt across the country and
coming full circle
But this isn’t the first time we’ve seen such a boom. Sylvia Caplin, who danced with the Festival Ballet from the age of just 14 before later moving into choreography and dance teaching, was invited by founder Debbie Moore to join Pineapple – the dance studio brand which, in the 1980s, was synonymous with dance itself – as the company was starting out. While rooted in the core benefi ts of ballet, the Pineapple offering was packaged up in a safe and attractive way to appeal to non-elite dancers, drawing on the feelgood factor of dance. It was, of course, very well-marketed; I used to dance myself – my enthusiasm no doubt fuelled even further by Fame, the
Fitness First’s Strictly Fit classes are
drop-in sessions that incorporate a bit of each dance type every week – waltz, cha cha cha, quickstep, jive and salsa
TV dance phenomenon of the time – and remember how vital it was, as a teenager, to have Pineapple-branded gear. But essentially, as Caplin explains:
“It was all just great fun and it took off in a way that really appealed to people.” She continues: “Over the last few
generations, as physical activity levels have dropped, there’s been a huge, natural energy reserve among the population that’s simply lain dormant. Thankfully we’re now coming full circle, and Strictly and the other dance programmes have played a huge part in that. They’ve brought back something that’s been missing for such a long time – the simple joy that all generations can get from dance. Strictly has brought excitement, fun and laughter in a way that serious ballet never did.” Fun is a word that comes up time and
again when you ask what lies at the heart of dance’s appeal. It’s also a word that crops up in many an industry discussion – the need to inject more fun into our offering, both to engage existing members and to attract new markets. Little surprise, then, that a number of health and fi tness operators are jumping onto the Strictly bandwagon, expanding their dance-based offering in a bid to draw in
46 Read Health Club Management online healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital
april 2010 © cybertrek 2010
the strictly effect
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