Dancing to their tunes - Article

Dancing to their tunes

Preeti Devnani
Posted online: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 12:00:00

They offer it all. Right from Funk, Tap and Jazz to Bhangra, Lavani and
Latin American—choreographers in the city know how to give the right
package deal to a wannabe dancer. And given the fact that Bollywood is
incomplete without the filmy dance sequences, the brains behind the
signature latkas and jhatkas—the choreographers—are now the new role
models amongst the youngsters. Inspired by Farah Khan, Saroj Khan,
Prabhu Deva, Shiamak Davar and Ganesh Hegde, Pune's young
guns are turning to dancing as a viable career.

Ask 20-year-old Kirti Advani who is an established choreographer with
the Shiamak Davar's Institute for the Performing Arts (SDIPA). She
says she's able to balance her studies along side her career. And is the
career choice really worth it?"The money I earn is real good, especially for
my age. I've become more independent and confident. Come on, anybody
would be, after being able to train 100-plus students on a daily base,"
says Advani. She also reveals that Bollywood is undoubtedly the hot
favourite dance form among city enthusiasts. "Most of the students
coming in want to have fun and also join in for the advantage of losing
weight and staying fit. Also with so many dance reality shows on air,
more and more people want to take up dance as an additional activity.
With Shiamak Davar being a judge on Jhalak Dhikla Jaa, our enrollment of
students influenced by the show has increased amazingly," she adds.


Another choreographer with the SDIPA is Jay Verma, who too
started off really early just like Advani. "I was a complete non-dancer
when I joined the beginners batch. Soon after, I started enjoying myself,"
says Verma, who feels becoming a choreographer is not just about
teaching. "It also a lot about management and HR skills that are needed
while handling students and dance troupes. It involves travelling,
managing finance along with other responsibilities," he adds.

In case you are venturing into filmdom, then choreography involves finer
details such as knowledge about lighting, camera angle and costumes. In
most cases, dances are woven around the script and the choreographer
has to keep in mind every detail of the story. The job calls for long hours
and odd work schedules and along with all that excellent inter-personal
skills are extremely important.

Twenty eight-year-old Sanjay Sawant, who started Aliens Dance Academy
seven years ago, says that if it's quick money that the person is looking
for then he or she should think twice before getting into this line. "The
income from such a profession is meagre initially. Only after years of hard
work will the finance get good." After choreographing for Zee India's Best,
Sawant has added to his kitty by choreographing for VIVA Girls, Abhijeet
Sawant and Tanushree Dutta.

But does the young age ever play spoilsport? Sixteen-year-old Purvi
Mundada, a trained Bharatanatyam dancer, who has lately joined the
bandwagon of young choreographers answers, " In the beginning, people
would be a little skeptical to train under me thinking I was too young for
the task. But just after one class, they would get convinced with my
dancing skills. I guess age is not a barrier if you have the talent and the
passion," says the Std XII student who now trains some 100 students.

Source: http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Dancing-to-their-
tunes/231573/

Your thoughts please!

Interesting article.

Dancing is a good way of relieving our stress. If u enjoy what u r doing then everything becomes easy.

Thanks 4 sharing.

Shruti

Shiamak's appearence on the Show as the Judge has promoted all his dancing schools to great levels now 😉 😛 ...Good for him and his dance academy 😳