OTTAWA - Move over ladies, men are hitting the dance floor.
Inspired by TV shows like "Dancing With the Stars" and "America's Best Dance Crew," viewers are getting off the couch to learn how to strut their stuff like the pros.
And a growing number of them are men.
With the premiere Thursday of "So You Think You Can Dance Canada" on CTV, the trend seems bound to continue.
Peter Lavictoire, a 21-year-old student from Montreal, never had any interest in taking dance lessons until he started watching reality dance shows at the behest of his girlfriend, Sagine Cave.
She is one of the many fans of the popular show "So You Think You Can Dance," the televised search for America's favourite dancer.
Cave was thrilled when Lavictoire put aside his inhibitions and surprised her with private swing dancing lessons for their anniversary.
"She always hinted that she wanted to do swing dancing some day. And I just never really had the opportunity to, or never really wanted to before the show," Lavictoire said.
"Watching reality dance TV shows inspires me to be a better dancer."
Lavictoire is not alone in his newfound love of dance. Mike Schultz, president and CEO of the Canadian branch of Fred Astaire Dance Studios, said his business is booming.
The company has seen a 25 to 40 per cent increase in clients, particularly single men and couples, looking to emulate their favourite TV dancers.
Schultz said the trend started in 2004 with the movie "Shall We Dance," which stars Richard Gere as an overworked lawyer who finds happiness through ballroom dancing.
Reality shows like "So You Think You Can Dance" soon followed, introducing a younger generation to ballroom dancing.
The show boasts and equal number of male and female dancers. And the men have won the competition three times in the show's four-year history.
And when former NFL player Emmitt Smith twirled his way to No. 1 on "Dancing With the Stars" in 2006, men started to see ballroom dancing as a more masculine activity and started signing up for classes.
"It has revolutionized our business," Schultz said. "It's opened the doors to the inside of our business to make it seem a little less scary."
Some are learning the fancy footwork from the comfort of their own home. Corey Vidal, 21, was so motivated by Ivan Koumaev's performance in a hip-hop routine during the second season of "So You Think You Can Dance" that he copied the dance and posted it on YouTube.
Vidal taught himself the choreography by watching the dance in slow motion, learning one step at a time, and then videotaped the routine in the basement of his Hamilton home.
"I watched it religiously. I would watch the episodes over and over," he said. "I just wanted to be a part of it."
The homemade video received more than 500 hits overnight, prompting him to develop a series of free "how-to" films so others could learn the steps.
One of his instructional videos received nearly 2.5 million hits on YouTube.
With 19-year-old Joshua Allen taking the top spot on "So You Think You Can Dance" last month and anticipation for the Canadian instalment building, it appears that male viewers will be two-stepping for years to come.
