JOIN USFrom contemporary to chhau and jazz to hip hop, the evening had a bit of all the dance styles as young choreographers queued up to present their acts.
As part of the recently concluded ‘Contemporary Arts Week 2014’, an evening titled ‘Few of the New’ was recently organised at Shri Satya Sai Auditorium. Ten youngsters performed ten short dance pieces, one after the other, making it appear as if the audience is the judge for a dance reality show!
While some impressed the audience with their moves, others did it with their energy. In the beginning, ‘Psychedelic Spirit’ by Avinash Avi displayed good body control as the dancer-choreographer showed some robotic steps on classical music. His popping style however was a tad repetitive and failed to gather much applause as compared to the solo performance by Reynold Kerketta. The latter’s contemporary-style began with a technical glitch in music. The words of the background music Say something I’m giving up on you could have been better expressed through addition of some facial expressions.
The ‘technical glitch’ was addressed as one witnessed the solo performance titled ‘Gandhari’ by Akansha Priyadarshini. Dressed in a black attire to suit her act, she used chhau in her choreography along with simple props such as a red drape and black stand to explain her piece.
“I had been working on a production on Gandhari which drew me towards Mahabharata and I devised a small piece for this show,” says Priyadarshini who has been training in chhau under choreographer Santosh Nayar. Though her act was abstract, the audience could relate to it and it was well received and appreciated, especially when she included pirouettes in her choreography and blindfolded herself in the end.
There were performers who danced with their partners. While the contemporary performance ‘Take Me To Church’ by Urvi Vora and Rakshit Arora made good use of the stage, their moves were not as impressive as those of Neha Goswami and Sumit Arora who performed salsa. Dressed in flashy clothes, the latter tried their best to sustain the energy required for the style but looked tired half-way through.
A true example of energy was the live wire performer Charlie Cherian who incorporated street-style choreography in his act and floored the audience. With curly hair, his resemblance to Michael Jackson in the latter’s early years sent a wave of excitement in the audience. Once he started moving, nothing could stop his fast hand movements that, coupled with his fine footwork, drew frequent whistles from the crowd.
The furore of youngsters interested in the art of dance didn’t conclude there, for a solo contemporary performance by Urvi Vora reminded one of importance of newness in choreography. Vora’s cute expressions and ability to communicate to the viewers (even though her eyes were hidden with her thick hair) made her quite a favourite. She danced as if no one was watching!
Group performances ‘The Magician’ by Prachi Sharma and dancers and another by Himanshu Kataria and Akt Force took the evening to new heights of energy. While the former incorporated jazz steps to narrate the tale of a magician, the latter was a true show of hip hop with back flips, throws and synchronised choreography.
If all this variety is presented by so-called upcoming artistes then one wonders what they will show in near future when they take to the stage as professionals.