Anna's Go-Go Academy

Private dancers - The Age - M Magazine Sunday March 23 2008
So Melburnians, you think you can dance? Melissa Kent talks to four dreamers who slip on their dancing shoes after hours.

Dance mania is sweeping the suburbs of Melbourne, fuelled by growing numbers of harried workers seeking fun, escapism and hot-blooded passion on a shiny floor. Name your style - tap, salsa, swing, jive, hip-hop, ballroom, ballet or break dance - and chances are you can find a class round the corner. In the past five years, the number of Yellow Pages online searches for dance tuition has more than doubled.

A recent survey by Galaxy Research, commissioned by Optus, a sponsor of Channel Ten's So You Think You Can Dance, reveals that dance classes are enjoying a huge surge in popularity among 18 to 29-year-olds. Latin/salsa was the most popular genre (54%), followed by funk/hip-hop (48%) and ballroom (41%), while a quarter said they would be interested in taking pole-dancing lessons to improve fitness.

Anna Achia, the glamorous mistress of Anna's Go-Go Academy in Collingwood, is a firm believer in the cure-all powers of dance. Every Tuesday, she leads a group of 60 beehived, mini-skirted, go-go dancers through a hit parade of retro favourites in the back room of the Bendigo Hotel. In this pub, the King Kong, the Hitchhiker, Fancy Dance Kicks and the Going My Way are groovy dance moves, not cocktails.

"People want something that fits into their lifestyle and allows them to express themselves," Achia says. "I love the fact that people come along to class and sort of evolve into a different person for an hour and half. Doing something purely for fun is immensely therapeutic and it's something we don't do enough of as adults."

Enthusiasts will tell you that an endorphin-charged hour of dance once or twice a week is the most effective antidepressant out there. Getting your groove on not only creates lean limbs, flat abs and erect posture, it is a natural wellspring of happy tonic.

THE GO-GO DANCING TEACHER

Go-go protege Maryanne Bridges has been shakin' it like a Polaroid picture at Anna's Go-Go Academy in Collingwood since classes started two years ago. A blend of funk, disco and groovy '60s podium dancing, this 90-minute class gets those knee-high boots bopping to everything from Elvis' Jailhouse Rock to AC/DC's Jailbreak.

Bridges, a year 3/4 teacher at West Lalor Primary School, attends one "official" go-go class each week, then hits the town with friends to put her new moves into practice on the dance floor. After all, what's the point of knowing how to do the Pony if no one sees it?

"It's like going to church with a brilliant teacher each week," Bridges, 30, says. "The classes are so inspiring. It makes you want to get out there and practise every night. Anna wears a pedometer to class and it's extraordinary the work-out you get from an hour of go-go dancing. More than that, you get a real endorphin high and it's fun and you laugh and you're hanging out with your friends."

For Bridges, who drives a 1964 Holden and loves fossicking through op shops for retro gems, go-go also satisfies her passion for things vintage.

"You don't have to get dressed up, but it's part of the fun," she says. "Go-go has kind of crept into my everyday look, even in the classroom. It's a whole way of life."

Her go-go mentor, Anna Achia, is also a burlesque dancer who goes by the name, Muffy Manhattan. For Achia, who grew up on Elvis movies, Countdown and disco, dance has always been her first love.

"It was my ambition to be a solid-gold dancer, then go-go became my passion because it's kind of rebellious and unstructured and fun," she says.
Achia says her classes offer an attractive exercise option for gym-haters, which could explain why they have doubled in size over the past year.

"I find aerobics boring and I hate the gym, but people recognise they need to be fit and healthy," she says. "Dance is the only exercise I've ever kept up. If it speaks to your creative side, you're more likely to keep going."

Crazy for You and the King Kong

Practising the Wind-Up, and some Pony madness!

Review

Melbourne Stage Online, Friday March 1st 2006, By Lola McMillan

Have you ever considered spending an hour or so doing the Cool Jerk? Well I have and on Tuesday evenings, in a hotel in Collingwood, you can too and more.

Melbourne Burlesque performer Anna, from the Hi Ball Burlesque, has brought her effervescent joie-de-vie to an all new venture, founding Anna's Go-Go Academy - "Australia's only official go-go school", launched on February 21st this year.

According to Anna, this is a "fun, high-energy, easy to learn" dance class, requiring no dance partner, it's "good for fitness" and you will learn moves that will then be "instantly transferable" to the party dance floor. Suitably prepared, I attended her beginners class.

The class participants are personally welcomed by the exuberantly colourful dance teacher, whom I like to call Miss Anna. I found that she engenders a completely unintimidating, social environment and likes to begin each class with a "cider and a fag". The class I attended had a good wide range of participants, even a man, although it did initially appear a little cliquey, everyone quickly warned up and I've never been to sich a giggly class! There is no pressure to be good or even right, making it easy to pick up the cool moves and the ginchy vibe.

This evening's dance was "the Cool Jerk", comprising of such steps as the big jerk and the monkey. If the steps don't officially have a name, Anna will name them herself. It helps the memory. After learning the set dance, there is the freestyle section of the evening, wherein dancers pull out their "party moves".

It is worth mentioning that this fun class is high impact on knees and lower back, if this is a concern to you I would consider doing your own warm-up before Anna starts hers.

My experience of this dance class is that it's like being invited to a high-enegry party, at which you'll be taken care of by the hostess with the mostest! On a fitness level, it's also a good alternative to the gym. Anna's expresses a desire to "amass a go-go army" and by the end of the class I believed she could!

So bring your dance shoes (sneakers, heels, vinly boots - you choose), your enthusiasm and you too can "Shake it like a Polaroid picture".

Photos

Anna's go-go students performed three routines at the Blow-Up French Special. Check out the photos!

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