It's a grey Monday afternoon in May, and a chilly wind is blowing in a serious spring storm. But inside the Sunday school hall of a United Church in east-end Toronto, the joint is jumping. Okay, not exactly jumping, but rumba-ing, fox-trotting, merengue-ing, waltzing and definitely swinging.

Unlike most ballroom-dancing classes, there is no self-consciousness here, no awkwardness, no giggling, no missteps -- just happy faces and the odd squeal of delight. Sure, once in a while a head droops and someone drops off to sleep in the middle of a dance, but what can you expect from a six-month-old?

Dozing infants are welcome, even encouraged, at Ballroom Babies, one of a new brand of exercise class that teaches dance techniques ranging from tango to hip-hop to new parents. Several courses are being offered for the first time this year in the Toronto area, aimed at stay-at-home mothers, fathers and caregivers who are looking for opportunities to socialize and maybe work off an extra pound or two.

Schoolteacher Kim Scarabello was inspired to start Ballroom Babies while watching the dance floor at a wedding and admiring the moves of the older guests. "I wanted to take a [ballroom] class myself," she says. But with a 10-month-old baby, Freeland, at home, it didn't seem possible.

"I looked around and couldn't find anything like this, so I thought I'd better start one myself."

Ms. Scarabello hired Jean and Chuan Chee, professional dancers and teachers, who modified many of the steps so they were easier for mothers to perform -- while carrying their babies in Snugglis -- and gentle on little ones. Since the class began a few months ago, 10 women have joined the group, and Ms. Scarabello has added an evening class, for couples and babies.

"It's good for the babies in the sense that they love the music and it's good for them to be moved around like that," she says. "And it's good exercise for the moms."

Joni Quattrocchi, a Ballroom Babies regular -- along with her six-month-old daughter, Hadleigh (the happy squealer) -- swears by the classes. "It really gets your whole body chemistry in a different mode," she says. "Once you get out and start moving around, it just changes how you look at everything. You're being active with your baby and it also makes you feel like you're achieving something. It kind of lifts your spirits."

And if ballroom doesn't appeal, parents have other dance options -- like salsa. Jennifer Torres was on maternity leave from her job at a marketing company when she decided she didn't want to leave her baby, Paloma, and go back to work. Last summer, she opened Salsa Babies and now teaches eight classes a week around Toronto, has added a Salsa Tots class (for children up to 3) and says she could be busy full-time if she wanted.

"It's a good time in your life to experience different things," Ms. Torres says. "A lot of women would like to take dance, but can't always convince their husbands, so it's great for them to get out with a partner who can't say no."

Ms. Torres, an avid salsa dancer from pre-baby days, starts with the basics, and if women in her class want to work at a higher fitness level, "they can just bend down lower or lift their legs up higher."

The class is intended for fun, but it often gives participants' self-esteem a much-needed lift. "You kind of get feeling sexy again because the music's got that Latin thing happening," Ms. Torres says. "It does a lot to boost confidence, and the moms start thinking about what they want to wear and so on. It's time to take care of themselves as well as the baby."

Fitmom recently changed its yoga-and-baby classes to Yoga and Dance Babies. The reason, according to Andrea Page, a personal trainer who started Fitmom Canada three years ago when she was at home with a newborn, was that the full-hour yoga classes weren't stimulating enough for the babies. Now, for the first half-hour of class, mothers do a bit of jazz, modern, ballet and even a little hip-hop with their babies before settling down for yoga.

"There's something about having a newborn around you all the time that creates a sense of monotony," Ms. Page says, with a frankness only a mother could have. "It keeps you distracted from really focusing on anything else. What I used to do in a day takes me a week now."

Ms. Page, who just had another baby, looks forward to the three classes she teaches each week. "No matter what you're doing in your life, you need that social contact with other mothers, that camaraderie, to survive."

Back in the church hall, the women are setting up for a fox trot before the end of class. Four couples (plus babies) take their places at the points of an imaginary diamond. The music starts, and the women move effortlessly through a complex sequence of steps that look likely to confound any dancer, never mind the sleep-deprived. As the music stops, one woman glances around and realizes they've all danced their way to a different part of the diamond -- just what they were supposed to do.

"We all moved," she exclaims incredulously. The mothers laugh and clap -- making the first real noise of the class, despite the presence of seven babies with a tendency to babble.

Nora Underwood is a Toronto-based freelance writer.

Taking the first step

Ballroom babies

(classes twice at week)

http://www.ballroombabies.ca

416-276-9001

Salsa babies

http://www.salsababies.com

416-690-4851

Fitmom

http://www.fitmomcanada.com

416-920-5262