'Balle, Balle!' Spicy workout draws energy from culture, music of India

Sarina Jain's workout DVDs mix what we've all grown to expect from fitness instructors -- a hands-free microphone, perky encouragements to hold in your stomach, stretch your quads and feel the music. Then there's her Indian flair - drum-heavy music, scarves and a tiny, tear-drop shaped bindi dotting her forehead.

"Balle, balle!" she yells in her husky voice, sliding across the screen and calling out a Punjabi expression of happiness.

Jain will be in Winston-Salem next Saturday for a 90-minute master class at the Gateway YWCA.

The daughter of Indian immigrants who grew up in California, Jain acquired a West Coaster's love of working out. She was proud of her Indian roots. And in her spare time she became interested in aerobics and later started teaching them. "I like to think I have a lot of energy. No one really told me it was important, I just did it," Jain said.

Her parents were very different. Her father liked to take walks for exercise, but it wasn't until he was in his 40s that Jain persuaded him to join a gym. In 1994, at the age of 47, he died of a heart attack.

After that, an idea kept eating at Jain. What is one place where Indians tend to work up a sweat? Weddings, where they dance bhangra, a traditional folk dance from the northwestern state of Punjab. If she didn't do some kind of workout with Indian dance, she knew someone would. And maybe it would be a way to get Indians to exercise.

"Indians don't work out. It's a very American thinking. Their priority is their families; let's take care of everyone else before I take care of me. My father only started working out in the last few years of his life."

So she took 1998 to work out names and routines, using her sister as a guinea pig and putting names to the traditional bhangra dance. She shot her first workout video in 1999. She later moved to New York, where she was nicknamed "the Jane Fonda of India."

The thing is, look at her classes and most of the faces aren't Indian. "Indians only come along with their American friends because they heard about it," Jain said.

That's OK with her. She's also gone back to India, where she records new workouts and has classes -- and she is finally getting Indians to get their heart rates up. The hardest part was getting them to follow her directions, she said.

"The music is exciting, it's addictive," she said. "If they can find something that makes them feel sexy and amazing … I think people want to go to a class where they can sweat and dance and get swept away."

Traditionally a farmers' dance used to celebrate the harvest, today bhangra is a part of dance competitions as well as celebrations. Steps are based on song lyrics, and the music is driven by the dhol, a two-sided, barrel-shaped drum. "If you go to an Indian wedding and they don't have bhangra, it's considered a very boring wedding," Jain said.

Add in a dash of sexy, fantastical Bollywood -- India's Hollywood, based in Mumbai, and a style of movies heavy on sentimentality, dance and song -- and you have Jain's version of bhangra. She calls it "Masala Bhangra," tacking on the Hindi word for "spicy."

"I've taken (bhangra) moves, modernized it a tad bit and introduced it to the American culture," Jain said. "Not only are you getting a great workout, you're learning culture at same time. You literally feel like you're at an Indian wedding. With the workout, you feel so culturally alive."

"Anyone can come do it. You just take it at your pace. As long as you sweat," she said.

Today, Jain appears as an instructor on Fit TV's "All Star Workouts." She has a lineup of bhangra DVDs, including one for kids. On her Web site you can buy workout twists on traditional clothing -- scarves and full, loose patiala pants.

Cortney Wilson, a fitness instructor who teaches at area gyms, took a class with Jain at a Zumba conference last year in Florida. She got into Jain's class so much that she persuaded one of her instructors, Mickela Mallozzi, to teach a class in Winston-Salem on Jan. 2, and for Jain to come next week.

Wilson is training to be certified through Jain's program, so she can teach local Masala Bhangra classes.

"After I took the class, I ran up to her and gave her hug and told her much I love it," she said. "It was an amazing, exciting workout. It was just the best workout I had in a long time."

While dance-based and cultural workouts come and go, Wilson thinks Masala Bhangra has staying power. "Movement never goes out of style," she said. "Culture never goes out of style. It's something that won't go away."

"We're pretty versed in the Latin culture, we're pretty used to hip-hop," Wilson said. "We're used to kick-boxing. Although it's dancing, it has some athletic moves, too. It's very strong at times. It's like a gumbo of motion."

lgiovanelli@wsjournal.com | 727-7302

If you go

Fitness instructor Sarina Jain will teach a master class on Jan. 30 from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Gateway YWCA, 1300 S. Main St. Advance tickets are $30 -- or $50 if you register with a friend -- and $35 at the door. Students are $20. Online registration is at www.fif-element.com.