baby

Baby-wearing dads dance to show mums how much they appreciate them.

A new baby-wearing dance craze is in full swing. Video footage of a dancing class packed with baby-wearing dads has been seen by over a million people on Facebook.

Most of the men in the video had never danced with their baby before.

US couple Amber and Meeshi Anjali came up with the idea for their GroovaRoo business to help “build communities of families where dance is an integral part of everyday life”.

Amber is a trained Doula and Meeshi Anjali’s has been involved in dance for over 20 years. Last year, the pair decided to combine their passions and the result was an offering of urban baby-wearing soul line dance classes for parents.

“We saw a YouTube video of baby-wearing salsa class from Spain and thought – ‘Why don’t we start baby-wearing soul line dance classes, especially since this dance style incorporates a lot of rocking movements that babies would like?’,”said GroovaRoo founder Meeshi Anjali.

“We looked around online and no one else was doing what we envisioned, so we started up our first class in August 2015, and have been teaching weekly classes in San Diego for the last 9 months,” said  GroovaRoo founder Meeshi Anjali.

One of the main goals for the pair was to encourage men to get more involved in dance.

“We feel that it is important for American dads to model that it is OK for men and boys to dance, and we hope that these dads grow in confidence with bonding and dancing with their babies,” said Anjali.

The pair encouraged dads to come along by offering “Mummy Mingle, Daddy Dance” workshops.

“I’ve found most adult American men to be very uncomfortable and insecure when it comes to dancing. I truly believe it’s a cultural thing, as American boys grow up without seeing the male adults in their lives dance as a part of their everyday culture, unlike in Latin American or African countries,” said Anjali.

The dance class idea could potentially travel to Australia. The pair are offering GroovaRoo Teacher Training in August and want to take the business around the world by 2017.

Video courtesy of GroovaRo. You can watch the full video here.