Do you like to dance? Lots of people do. The celebrated choreographer Richard Alston famously said: “Dance is vital, an activity both exhilarating to watch or do. It can speed up your heart rate, it can enliven your being, it can change your life.” And it does for many people.

Pondering this, I wondered how many Oxfordshire people dance each week, so I googled Oxfordshire dance classes and was astounded by the stats. Although I couldn’t find out the number of participants I discovered that the Library holds details of nearly 140 weekly adult classes and 163 classes for children... over 300 classes a week, amazing!

And what sort of dances do you think they do? Well, that too is not something I anticipated.

However if I put my brain in gear I might have thought that our marvellously multi-cultural Oxfordshire society means we have access to dances that I’d never heard of. How many dances can you name off the top of your head? Let’s forget all those you can see on Strictly, see if you can name another six. Got your list? Did you get Balkansko Oro, Bharata Natyam, Booiaka, Butoh, Capoeira, Ceili, Egyptian or English Country Dancing? Believe it or not there is even a subsidiary class called Draw Dance which is a ballet class open to artists wishing to draw dancers... who knew?

There are also dance classes for people with learning disabilities and for the over 50s. And then there are the ones you might expect street, hip-hop, contemporary, ceroc, breakdance, Latin and ballroom.

If you fancied doing something new for 2014 why not get involved with a dance.

A good start would be to get down to Oxford City Centre on Saturdays March 1 and 8 when Dancin’ Oxford’s 2014 Festival has scheduled lots of free dance in the afternoon. There will be a wide range of dance styles from tap to Lindy Hop, vintage dance to promenade contemporary performances. There are even some interactive dance mats for you try.

The 11-day festival offers a range of professional performances, sessions for the very young plus taster dance sessions. You need not have any experience but these workshops, led by professional teachers, are great fun. You could try Kathak, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Zumba, Salsa, Afro-Brazilian and Contemporary dance. Go on, have a go, at the very least you will know what these dances are in future!

More information from dancinoxford.co.uk