Others, however, have taken the chance to bring the dancefloor to their living room, potentially taking part in one of the online dance classes promoted by Ausdance ACT.

The dance organisation is both running and promoting online dance classes during the Canberra lockdown in a bid to get people - of all abilities - moving, not just for the entertainment value or the physical benefits but for the mental ones as well.

"The dancefloor is often quite a cathartic space for people," Ausdance director Cathy Adamek says.

"I've often watched people because a lot of my research is within dance music culture ... and you can see people cry, and people get very emotional when they dance. I think that's why also it holds a really important place at weddings as well and I think now that we don't have dancing at weddings across Australia, people are really missing it.

"I think dance was something people took for granted before, and not that it's taken away from us, you really start to understand the value of dance."

When lockdown hit the capital, Ausdance created a landing page to post all of the online classes available to people in Canberra. The result is a diverse list of dance genres, including hip hop, commercial, urban, burlesque, ballet and contemporary, provided for free or at a low cost.

Ausdance has also moved their own weekly classes - usually held at the Canberra Theatre Centre - online, which are hosted by different Canberra dance artists.

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"The great thing about dancing in your own home is that ... the pressure is off as a participant in that space," Adamek says.

"It's much more relaxed, in a way. If you need to sort of nip off and get a drink or go to the toilet, you can just turn your camera off and do it.

"It's harder for the teacher in some ways, but I actually think it's great in terms of participation rates for people who maybe wanted to go and do a class, but they could never find the time."

Ausdance ACT has also teamed up with ZEST Dance for Wellbeing to run classes aimed at people who find it hard to move.

"Those classes are developed specifically for people who for whatever reason have to move in a particularly careful way," Adamek says.

"They are seated classes and all the movement is based around what you can do from a chair. And it's actually amazing what you can physically do in terms of the kind of workout you can do just from sitting in a chair.

"Dance is particularly good for improving certain physical conditions of Parkinson's. So that's something that a lot of Parkinson's centres and groups have sort of offered over the years consistently."

For more information or the full list of dance classes go to ausdanceact.org.au.

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