Anuja Rajendra of BollyFit featured in Detroit Free Press

In a article titled "Inventive routines make the right workout for hard times" in yesterday's Detroit Free Press, Erin Chan writes about a talented Michigan Indian - Anuja Rajendra of Bollyfit.

A class called "Bollyfit" in Ann Arbor merges culture and fitness by incorporating Bollywood dance into workouts. Designed by Ann Arbor resident Anuja Rajendra, the class puts a fitness emphasis on the choreography and upbeat movements of the dances Bollywood movies made famous.

The dancers learn some steps each week, and by the end of an eight-week session, they will have pieced together a complete dance.

At the front of the room, Rajendra, a lithe mother of two, leads the women in a series of sweat-inducing hand gestures (mudras), half-sits (araimandis) and other moves that, once put together, form a routine during the 6-minute song.

"One of the hardest things I do," she says, "is achieving the right balance of dance, fitness and accessibility."

Raised in Okemos, Rajendra, 36, began her training in classical Indian dance 30 years ago. For years, she performed with her two older siblings as the Rajendra Sisters Dance Troupe.

The dancing stopped when one sister, Rachana Rajendra, was killed in a car accident at the age of 27. For the next decade, Rajendra shoved dance aside.

"Just the idea of dancing," she says. "There wasn't joy in it."

That changed a couple of years ago, after the birth of her second son. She had gained 60 pounds with her first pregnancy and 45 pounds with her second, and "I was literally waddling around and looking for a way to get healthy again," she says.

"I started dancing, and not only was the weight coming off, but the joy was coming back. A spark that had been gone started re-emerging."

When friends wanted to learn, that prompted Rajendra to begin teaching a class at the YMCA two years ago. It became so popular that she parlayed the concept into Bollyfit and teaches twice a week in Ann Arbor and once a week in Plymouth.

The classes possess a peaceful, free-flowing feel. The routine's moves are not fixed and the people who attend often vote on them.

The classes have a sisterly quality -- Rajendra describes a move by shouting, "The legs move, but the hips get the credit!" -- and have drawn mostly women. Rajendra says men are welcome and could get their own class, like the one she will offer for toddlers within the coming months.

The women in the class say the social appeal mixed with the unorthodox workout keeps them interested.

"You feel like you're with a group of friends," says Deasha Perry, 22, of Ypsilanti. "I don't even think about it being exercise until the end, when I'm all wet and my muscles ache."