It is the 68th birthday of the actor Mithun Chakraborty, an excellent excuse for a quiz on dancers!

Dance with me

1 Virginia McMath was one of the most accomplished dancers of her time, and chiefly remembered for a series of RKO films starring another legendary dancer. By what name do we know her better?

2 Which famous 19th-century work of fiction relates the story of 16-year-old danseuse Esmeralda and her goat Diali?

3 The first Indian woman to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha was dancer and choreographer Rukmini Devi Neelakanda Sastri. Which ancient dance form did she help revive?

4 Helen is probably the most celebrated dancer in Bollywood. Originally from Burma, Helen first caught the public eye with her performance in which popular song from the film Howrah Bridge ?

5 In 1938, which legendary performer established a dance and music centre at Simtola in Uttarakhand, where the likes of Zohra Sehgal, Guru Dutt, Amala Shankar and Ruma Guha Thakurta learnt from stalwarts like Kandappa Pillai and Ustad Allauddin Khan?

6 This dance move was first popularised in the mid-’30s by Cab Calloway, who called it ‘The Buzz’. It was brought back into prominence in the early ’80s by a musical legend, who first performed it during a programme on 25 years of Motown music. Identify this dance step, the signature move of the pop legend.

7 The love affair of Railway Raju and Rosie, the dance-loving wife of the archaeologist Marco, is narrated in which famous story, also made into a very popular film?

8 Rudolf Nureyev was one of the greatest ballet dancers of his time. While he performed with many artistes, his most famous partner was 19 years his senior, and they last performed together in 1988 when he was 50 and she was 69. Name this legendary dancer, who partnered Nureyev for over three decades.

9 Which specific dance style from Asia featured in a video that in 2012 became the first-ever video to get more than a billion views on Youtube?

10 One question about disco king. Mithun Chakraborty’s biggest dance hit, Disco Dancer , features him as a young dancer who is up against the arrogant current national disco champion, Sam. Which actor played the role of Sam?

Answers

1. Ginger Rogers, who formed a prolific dancing partnership with Fred Astaire

2.The Hunchback of Notre Dame

3. Bharatanatyam

4. ‘Mera naam chin chin choo’, sung by Geeta Dutt. Many of Helen’s early hits were sung by Geeta Dutt

5. Uday Shankar, elder brother of Pandit Ravi Shankar. The centre was finally closed in 1942 due to lack of funds

6. The Moonwalk, by Michael Jackson

7. The Guide , by RK Narayan. The film starred Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman in the lead roles

8. Dame Margot Fonteyn. Nuryev would often said that they danced with a single body and soul

9. Gangnam style, performed by South Korean Park Jae-sang, better known as PSY. Currently, it has over three billion views

10. Karan Razdan

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Joy Bhattacharjya

 

Joy Bhattacharjya is a quizmaster

Twitter: @joybhattacharj

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