How confident a dancer are you? Two Left Feet or Ballroom Legend? Me, I tend toward the former, but if you’re the same then this International Dance Day, Apple may have something to suit.
International Dance Day is Friday, April 29 and in the week beginning Monday, April 25, there’ll be a bunch of curated dance content to get you up and moving.
In the run-up to International Dance Day, Fitness+ will be celebrating dance all through the week.
The content is part of Apple Fitness+ which, as you’ll know, is the subscription service for Apple Watch users, providing workouts that can be watched on iPhone, iPad or via Apple TV.
For a start, there’s the Artist Spotlight series which has just begun with workout playlists from individual artists or bands, and this week saw the arrival of workouts with music from three groups, ABBA, BTS and Queen. This week and for the next three, there’ll be new workouts across different types including Strength, HIIT, Yoga, Pilates, Cycling, Treadmill and, of course, Dance.
Curated workouts with playlists from ABBA, BTS or Queen.
Apple
So, in a first for Apple, the coming days will see an Artist Spotlight Dance workout with moves in the workout taken directly from the choreography used in music videos. Trainer Ben Allen has chosen BTS, appropriately, and it means you can aspire to being as accomplished as the BTS members with—and here’s the crucial bit—nobody seeing any mistakes you’ve made.
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When it comes to mistakes, the Apple Fitness+ view is there are no mistakes, just what are called accidental solos. So, that’s what I’ve been doing all this time! I think I prefer the phrase spontaneous solos, but I’m glad of the excuse for doing my own thing.
Where Apple Fitness+ excels is in the way it uses the Apple Watch to measure your performance metrics and puts the onscreen on your iPhone, iPad or Apple TV. You can see onscreen whether you’re coming close to closing your rings, and in some workouts whether you’re at the front of the pack of users’ exertions.
When International Dance Day itself rolls round, the Watch will also have a limited-edition award to be won. Complete any Dance work out of 20 minutes or more and you can win. Oh, and there’ll be animated stickers on offer, too.
Get into a Groove with Dance.
Apple
A few days earlier, on Monday, April 25, there’s also going to be another dance celebration, with a collection called Get into a Groove with Dance. It will start with three workouts from the Dance trainers to get on the dance floor, to help build confidence (I am looking forward to this), along with three 30-minute workouts called Take Center Stage. Don’t be frightened.
Fitness+ is resolutely about inclusivity, democratizing workouts so everyone feels they can take part. This means doing yoga for the first time without worrying that you don’t know your downward dog from baby dragonfly. Or HIIT in an environment where you can take it easy when it gets too much. And above all, it means Apple can help you dance with confidence, without awkward self-consciousness holding you back, so you can let yourself go and make the most of the joy that dance should be.
