New Year, New You: Video Dance

One of the surprise hits of the Dance House programme have been the Video Dance Classes. While it might be predictable that a class based on learning the moves from pop videos would become a success, the identity of the teacher is not. 

“I'm probably better known as a contemporary dancer and choreographer,” Ruth Mills admits. Having taught the technique based on Martha Graham’s revolutionary explorations into free dance, and presenting work that combined a respect for contemporary dance’s intellectual heritage with a modern intensity, Mills found herself working with a far more mainstream material.

“I love music. I was a musician before I discovered dance as a teenager,” she elaborates, to explain her path. “Most of my inspiration as a choreographer begins with music and led me into the world of choreographing and directing music videos. I want to get the whole world dancing and expose them to great music along the way. So the two are inseparable.”

Mills' classes, which are now divided into particular acts’ routines following their runaway success in 2010, have been made easier by the internet. There are rumours that she has taught routines from videos the very day after their release. “With the dawn of YouTube and access to recordings of almost every dance routine/music video you can think of, I had a new hobby: learning all those dances I loved to watch,” she explains. But the contemporary dancer couldn’t keep her secret. “So, what essentially started as a secret hobby has now evolved into a series of classes with Dance House which are literally bursting at the seams with enthusiastic participants.”

Another thing that separates this class from the herd, says Mills, is that “this is a great class for men. Men love being clever, and if they treat learning to move like Michael Jackson as they would a disappearing handkerchief then they may surprise themselves by how well they do.” Of course, there is more to it than hard work, with the rewards obvious, especially in the party season.”Is there a man on the planet who wouldn't want to be able to pull off a mesmerising moonwalk, out of nowhere, at the work's Christmas night out?” she concludes. “I think not.”