This Singh has got Kathak moves

CHANDIGARH: It would not be difficult to see that he's made of a different mettle - a Sikh male depicting a feminine form through classical Indian dance forms. Coming from a community and moreover a region that loves displaying its machismo, 21-year-old Simerpreet Singh Sokhi has no qualms admitting that he is in love with a dance form that requires delicate and feminine movements - quite a contrast to what one usually associates with Sikh men's bhangra moves!
A trained Bharatnatyam and Kathak dancer, Sokhi made his debut performance at Punjab Kala Bhawan in Sector 16 on Saturday evening."Since a kid I was interested in the traditional dance forms but I had no idea that I would be picking up this as my profession," he said, sharing his journey with TOI.
"Since I earned complete support from my family, I never paid much heed to what people said. I believe that doing what you are passionate about is better than being a bad doctor or a bad engineer," he says.
Sokhi feels people don't take these dance forms seriously and would rarely take them up as a profession. This is why it was difficult for him to explain his passion for the art form. "Apart from that, there are difficulties at times when I have to play a female part in Kathak as that requires feminine attire and make-up. The beard then poses a problem. But overall, any dance form is a matter of how you articulate yourself to the audience through the movement of your body and expressions," he adds, explaining how he overcomes the barrier.
After receiving his dance diploma from Kalakshetra academy in Chennai, the Kalka-resident received the first prize in a regional dance competition in the classical dance genre. Sokhi loves south Indian music and dance forms for the compositions these depict. "The expressions and the various dance formations that you see are beautiful and the elegance that they portray on the stage is an overwhelming experience," he adds.
The long hours of practice during his diploma in Chennai also helped Sokhi a lot - especially with discipline. He recalls his teacher telling students whatever they did then would only be half reflected on the stage because of the costume, make-up and the audience, besides stage fright. "Now when I perform, I realize that this one hour performance is what I learned in these four years."
While he has picked up both, Sokhi adds that Kathak is very different from Bharatnatyam. "One common thing is that the training is very hard, but the dance form is not that difficult to understand. Once you are introduced to and understand the basics of the dance forms, you can easily enjoy the performance," he says.
For Sokhi, the satisfaction of performance and the realization of carrying forth the Indian culture in its purest form - something that the present generation ignores - compensates for whatever appreciation is lost elsewhere.