Salsa,
they say causes heavy breathing, and Agampreet Singh would agree. She
has felt a strain on the heart ever since her husband picked this
particular contact sport, and a younger partner. "What's wrong with
bhangra?" she wails.
Like Singh, men and women in cities like Chandigarh, Mysore, and Rajkot — cities one wouldn't immediately associate with Latin and ballroom dancing — have lately stumbled upon moves like the Forward Lock and the Turkish Towel.
In a country reflexively trained to keep the opposite sex at arm's length, the invitation to get close and simulate a passion that's scarcely expressed in the dark, even with spouses, takes a bit of urging. Which is why dance instructors bringing these forms to virgin ground are taking cautious, circuitous steps to the ballroom.
In Chandigarh, for example, it's via dance-workout that men and women are given a taste of cha-cha or merengue. I incorporate some cha-cha steps into routine set to bhangra music," says Jasmeet K Shan, a tutor who holds ballroom and Latin classes in Chandigarh. Shan's own footwork progressed in complexity and technique over four years, beginning with classes in Delhi. She then had cousins in the UK send over videos of their own lessons.
But, Shan says, it's slow going, trying to get Punjabis to pick up the Paso Doble. They'll take to something only if they believe it's fashionable," she claims. Reality shows like Dance India Dance and the Indian version of Dancing with the Stars (Jhalak Dikhla Ja) may have succeeded in drawing out potential dancers — some led by the nose by fame-ished mothers — but Shan believes their free-for-all formats don't help competitive ballroom dancing at all. As another dancer points out, many raised on tele-fare, conflate Latin dancing with aerobic swoops and ballroom with twirling their partners around like tops.
They're being disabused of this notion by instructors who are not only teaching Ballroom and Latin as forms of social or exhibition dancing, but also as competitive sport, or Dance-Sport, as it's called when the stakes are risen to gold standard. "Abroad, participants are called dance athletes," says Dr Preeti Gupta, an awardwinning athlete who, having trained and participated in championships around the world with her partner Shannon Benjamin, is now actively promoting Dancesport in India. The couple holds workshops in places like Rajkot and Chandigarh, and recently organized the annual Latin & Ballroom DanceSport Championship in Maharashtra. "In the first year we had 33 couples register for the competition; this year we had 150," she says.
Seven of these were from Rajkot. "Many in Rajkot had not even heard this sort of music before, until they arrived at the workshops we conducted in April and July this year," says Jigyasa Joshi, a 37-year-old homemaker who partners with 26-year-old Kunal Raval for performances. They run Footrapp Dance Factory and Fitness Studio, where partner dances have only just been introduced. "Rajkot isn't Bombay, here it's hard enough to get men and women to hold hands, let alone one another," says Joshi, whose own husband initially had a hard time adjusting to the sight of his wife in the arms of a younger man. "He'd much rather I stuck to Bharatnatyam, in which I'm trained," she laughs. Having twigged the truth that close contact need not breed anything other than a working relationship, the husband, a businessman in real estate, now even helps the group find venues for demonstrations.
Other husbands, having unsuccessfully tried to partner with wives, are reluctantly letting their spouses partner with others, although they insist on accompanying them to class.
"When students started dancing with strangers, they'd hold them by the tips of their fingers to minimize contact, and they'd stare at the floor throughout," Joshi reports. However, proof of progress is in the medals brought home at the recent championship in Mumbai. Four of the seven couples from Rajkot won in salsa and jive. "The women may come to class in salwar kameezes back home in Rajkot, but for the championship, they travelled to Ahmedabad in evening gowns and heels," says Joshi.
It's a new energy and emancipation evident on the dance floor. The novelty of the moves, the tempo of the music, and perhaps surmounting even these, the sanction of such coupling, is what's earning ballroom a following. These days, DanceSport championships are held in cities like Mysore and Chandigargh. Not all of them however are organized by the All-India Dance Sports Federation, an outfit headquartered in Orissa, whose job it supposedly is to promote DanceSport in the country. In fact, it is individual dancers who are spreading the word.
Couples like Santosh and Akshata Rao, from Mysore, set out on August 11 on a tandem cycle tour across India to introduce schools and colleges to ballroom dancing. The couple, having spent five months training with Diane Jarmolow (whose syllabus is globally followed in ballroom training) in Oakland, are of the opinion that ballroom dancing can build confidence and promote mutual respect between the sexes as shown in the 2005 documentary Mad Hot Ballroom. Says Santosh: "Most schools however are not open to it; they feel it would cause more problems if they encouraged boys and girls to touch each other, even if in a dance." Seems like ballroom has a long way to go in India, but it certainly making all the right moves.
Like Singh, men and women in cities like Chandigarh, Mysore, and Rajkot — cities one wouldn't immediately associate with Latin and ballroom dancing — have lately stumbled upon moves like the Forward Lock and the Turkish Towel.
In a country reflexively trained to keep the opposite sex at arm's length, the invitation to get close and simulate a passion that's scarcely expressed in the dark, even with spouses, takes a bit of urging. Which is why dance instructors bringing these forms to virgin ground are taking cautious, circuitous steps to the ballroom.
In Chandigarh, for example, it's via dance-workout that men and women are given a taste of cha-cha or merengue. I incorporate some cha-cha steps into routine set to bhangra music," says Jasmeet K Shan, a tutor who holds ballroom and Latin classes in Chandigarh. Shan's own footwork progressed in complexity and technique over four years, beginning with classes in Delhi. She then had cousins in the UK send over videos of their own lessons.
But, Shan says, it's slow going, trying to get Punjabis to pick up the Paso Doble. They'll take to something only if they believe it's fashionable," she claims. Reality shows like Dance India Dance and the Indian version of Dancing with the Stars (Jhalak Dikhla Ja) may have succeeded in drawing out potential dancers — some led by the nose by fame-ished mothers — but Shan believes their free-for-all formats don't help competitive ballroom dancing at all. As another dancer points out, many raised on tele-fare, conflate Latin dancing with aerobic swoops and ballroom with twirling their partners around like tops.
They're being disabused of this notion by instructors who are not only teaching Ballroom and Latin as forms of social or exhibition dancing, but also as competitive sport, or Dance-Sport, as it's called when the stakes are risen to gold standard. "Abroad, participants are called dance athletes," says Dr Preeti Gupta, an awardwinning athlete who, having trained and participated in championships around the world with her partner Shannon Benjamin, is now actively promoting Dancesport in India. The couple holds workshops in places like Rajkot and Chandigarh, and recently organized the annual Latin & Ballroom DanceSport Championship in Maharashtra. "In the first year we had 33 couples register for the competition; this year we had 150," she says.
Seven of these were from Rajkot. "Many in Rajkot had not even heard this sort of music before, until they arrived at the workshops we conducted in April and July this year," says Jigyasa Joshi, a 37-year-old homemaker who partners with 26-year-old Kunal Raval for performances. They run Footrapp Dance Factory and Fitness Studio, where partner dances have only just been introduced. "Rajkot isn't Bombay, here it's hard enough to get men and women to hold hands, let alone one another," says Joshi, whose own husband initially had a hard time adjusting to the sight of his wife in the arms of a younger man. "He'd much rather I stuck to Bharatnatyam, in which I'm trained," she laughs. Having twigged the truth that close contact need not breed anything other than a working relationship, the husband, a businessman in real estate, now even helps the group find venues for demonstrations.
Other husbands, having unsuccessfully tried to partner with wives, are reluctantly letting their spouses partner with others, although they insist on accompanying them to class.
"When students started dancing with strangers, they'd hold them by the tips of their fingers to minimize contact, and they'd stare at the floor throughout," Joshi reports. However, proof of progress is in the medals brought home at the recent championship in Mumbai. Four of the seven couples from Rajkot won in salsa and jive. "The women may come to class in salwar kameezes back home in Rajkot, but for the championship, they travelled to Ahmedabad in evening gowns and heels," says Joshi.
It's a new energy and emancipation evident on the dance floor. The novelty of the moves, the tempo of the music, and perhaps surmounting even these, the sanction of such coupling, is what's earning ballroom a following. These days, DanceSport championships are held in cities like Mysore and Chandigargh. Not all of them however are organized by the All-India Dance Sports Federation, an outfit headquartered in Orissa, whose job it supposedly is to promote DanceSport in the country. In fact, it is individual dancers who are spreading the word.
Couples like Santosh and Akshata Rao, from Mysore, set out on August 11 on a tandem cycle tour across India to introduce schools and colleges to ballroom dancing. The couple, having spent five months training with Diane Jarmolow (whose syllabus is globally followed in ballroom training) in Oakland, are of the opinion that ballroom dancing can build confidence and promote mutual respect between the sexes as shown in the 2005 documentary Mad Hot Ballroom. Says Santosh: "Most schools however are not open to it; they feel it would cause more problems if they encouraged boys and girls to touch each other, even if in a dance." Seems like ballroom has a long way to go in India, but it certainly making all the right moves.
Your blog is very informative and gracefully
ReplyDeleteyour guideline is very good.Thank you
Best Zumba classes in Delhi