Let's Dance into a Healthy Future

Strictly Come Dancing stars Darren Bennet and Lilla Kopylova perform for Salford schoolchildren. Photograph: Gabriel Szabo/Guzelian/Guzelian

I'm passionate about dance – about getting people to move and enjoy themselves. But I know dance has incredible physical benefits too. From September, I'll be joining 11 other "dance champions", led by Rod Aldridge, to think about ways we can get Britain dancing and improve our health in the process.

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Andy Burnham is right to be concerned about the fact that we don't do very much exercise. We're way down in the international league tables for health and physical activity. The aim is, over the next few years, to change that completely. So we'll be running a national campaign to boost participation in dance in the run up to 2012 and the Olympics. Our priority is to find ways of making dance accessible and above all making it easy for people. Dancing should be as much a part of our daily routine as brushing our teeth.

Every Christmas, people over-eat, and, come New Year, they make resolutions to go to the gym, attend dance classes, or go running. But after a few sessions, they give up. One of the things we'll be trying to understand is why this happens. Why is it such an effort? Part of the reason is our sedentary lifestyles. Everything comes to us; we have all sorts of entertainment at our fingertips – TV, video games, the internet – but they all involve sitting down. One of the things I really admire is the way people in China gather together early in the morning to do tai chi. It would be wonderful if we could work movement like this into our everyday lives.

I'm not just talking about ballroom or Latin dancing here – although when I was a judge on Strictly Come Dancing, all of the contestants (the ones that weren't already professional dancers) lost weight and saw their health improve. That type of dancing isn't for everyone, as much as I love it. It can be quite difficult, and involves a partner. Not everyone wants to dance with a partner, and that's fine. What we want to do is encourage people to dance for themselves.

Dancing isn't just about the physical benefit – it makes you feel good too. Music is an important part of this, of course. Music and movement work beautifully together – I see this all the time in people walking down the street: if they're listening to music there's a spring in their step and their posture is straight. This is really the beginning of dance. As I always say, step one is walking, step two is dancing.

We need to get children involved. The best way of building up a habit for dance is to introduce it early. When I was teaching I'd go to some schools where no one wanted to dance – when they came into the room it was as though they were being punished. But I'd put on the loudest, the heaviest metal you could imagine and they loved it. It was just a question then of gradually taking the moves they were making and extending them. It's quite surprising how easily you can get into it. And once you've won over a room full of kids like that you're home free.

Fast foward to 2012 – I'm hoping that we've got people all over the country looking on dance and movement as a central part of their life. If we just get 1% of people dancing regularly, we'll have made a difference; 50% and we'll have made a huge difference.

It's surprising how easy it can be: swaying from side to side, moving forward and back but making it constant and moving the arms. That's the way to raise people's spirits, to make us all a bit healthier and happier.