India, the land of Bharatnatyam, Kathakali and Manipuri dances are now looking westwards.
Indian youths are increasingly adopting a world culture not only in their dress or food habits but also in humming the latest world hits in music and even shaking a leg to the global dancing trends.
New dance schools that have come up in different street corners of the Indian cities are now teaching dances like the salsa, merengue, bachata or mambo and more and more people are registering their names there.
A rough estimate says India’s capital city Delhi alone has more than 500 dancers from all walks of life and that the number of dancers in India could go up to more than 10,000 in the years to come. Besides, hundreds also throng “weeklong classes” organized by various contemporary dance schools.
Sunil Chopra who runs the Mundo Latino dance school with his dancer wife
Shallu and Poland-based dancer Neeraj Maskara in the capital’s Greater Kailash area said their school teaches salsa and Spanish to nearly 100 amateur dancers for $30 for six sessions lasting for 90 minutes. Latino dances have become the most popular form among the Indian students now.
Latino dances derive from the African rumba rhythm, swing and pachanga beats from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia and Dominican Republic as well as the contemporary R&B and hip-hop genres of free-style dancing. But its elegance is very ballroom type.
Gupsom Pierre, a Singapore-based Latino dancer and instructor in India feels the best salsa dancers are now emerging from Asia countries as more and more Asian countries are opening their doors to this dance form. “The Latino dances are all about discipline and overcoming challenges on the dance floor. I always use an element of ballet in my lessons,” Pierre said.
Even the students feel Latino dances make their body flexible and keeps them in shape. For many it is better than many other outdoor sports and they also found it easier to adopt. “The idea is to look groovy, natural and sensuous on the dance floor,” a student commented.
Seeing the growing popularity of these dance styles, more and more Bollywood (the India movie industry) movies are keeping some such numbers in the latest releases. Recent Hindi language movies like “Kites” (which stars Hrithik Roshan, the hero as a salsa instructor) “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara” and “Desi Boyz” have extensively used Latino dances.
It only proves how much deep these new dance forms have gone into the Indian psyche.
