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It wasn’t the first thing one would expect to hear at a beginners Bollywood dance class in South Jakarta: “There is no such thing as Bollywood dance,” instructor Munmun Gupta Singh told the group.

But before everyone packed up their saris and headed for the door, she continued: “It has all kinds of dance mixed into it — hip-hop, jazz, Latin, any possible dance you can think of.”

With so many possibilities, it’s no wonder that India’s booming film industry has been pumping out all-singing, all-dancing hits for more than half a century. It also explains the universal appeal of the movies’ dance routines, and why more Jakartans are looking for places to learn.

So-called Bollywood dance has become a staple program at many of the capital’s gyms and fitness centers over the past couple of years, with a few private clubs and schools now also offering classes.

Singh has been teaching at the club Bollygrooves Jakarta for more than three years, and says everyone from “12-year-olds to tantes [aunties]” is eager to have a go. Because Bollywood is not a classical dance discipline, she says, it’s something that anyone can try.

Singh teaches routines that she copies from Bollywood films, with a few of her own moves thrown in from traditional Indian dance and Western pop styles.

Apart from a few certified summer courses with Hindi choreography guru Shiamak Davar, Singh is not formally trained, but says she can’t remember a time when dancing was not a part of her life.

Growing up in the northern city of Kanpur in India, Singh experienced dance as an integral part of everyday life, from group routines at weddings and birthday parties to dancing with friends and family on the weekend.

“In my family, my cousins and I were made to line up and our parents would hold a dance competition for us,” she says. “We were very competitive and would practice for hours at home.”

Since moving to Jakarta five years ago, Singh has found dancing to be the best way to stay in touch with India, because when it comes to a love of Bollywood films, India and Indonesia are on common ground.

Unlike in America’s Hollywood, Bollywood filmmakers have maintained the tradition of including song and dance numbers in most films — something that still captures the imagination of Indonesian audiences today.

Just last year, a Sulawesi-based Mobile Brigade police officer named Norman Kamaru became a national celebrity after a video of him dancing and lip-synching to the Bollywood hit “Chaiyya Chaiyya” while on duty went viral on the Internet. Norman became so busy doing talk shows and appearing in films that he was eventually dismissed from the police.

In the infamous video, the dancing policeman’s neck-wobbling, finger-pointing moves are typically Bollywood, mimicking the style of the industry’s “king,” actor Shah Rukh Khan. So just what is it about the routines in Bollywood films that makes them so identifiable?

If there is a core move, Singh says, then it’s the pelvic thrust.

“Whether it’s the actor or the actress dancing, you’ll always notice the pelvic thrust,” she says with a giggle. “Then there is also the thamka move, where your hips sway all the way from one side to the other.”

The rest is a combination of traditional and contemporary dance, enhanced with over-the-top, theatrical gestures.

“It’s about storytelling,” Singh says. “Every dance move is telling a story about what has just happened in the movie, or what is going to happen next.”

The moves are very literal — when you’re talking about your heart, you point to your heart. If it’s eyes, point to the eyes. And if it’s despair over learning that your son is homosexual (a very uncomfortable truth for a conservative Indian parent), then a dramatic fist to the forehead is appropriate, Singh says.

“You will see certain classical Indian moves from traditions like kathak and bharatnatyam in Bollywood dance, but it’s more about expressing what you’re feeling,” she says.

That’s why Singh likes to tell her students the story behind each song, so they can really get into character. Better still, she says, is if they go home and watch the movies that the songs are taken from.

One student requested a routine set to the hit song “Chammak Challo,” performed by Sengalese-American artist Akon on the soundtrack to the 2011Bollywood film “Ra.One.”

“Chammak challo means keychain,” Singh told the class. “So the signature move in the routine is to move your body like a [shaking] keychain.”

She said Bollywood choreographers aim to come up with a signature move they hope will “go viral.” For “Chammak Challo,” that move is a 1970s-inspired shuffle with plenty of finger-twirling and hip-shaking, now popular at clubs and wedding parties across India.

But despite the midriff costumes, suggestive lyrics and club dance moves, Bollywood is not considered a form of erotic dance in India, Singh says.

“Bollywood is more than being sexy, it’s about being sensuous and looking very beautiful,” she says. “It should look classy and it should still look very Indian.

“It’s not that difficult when you get into it,” she added.

Find Bollygrooves Jakarta on Facebook for more details.