Mumbaikars do the folk dance

Only until a few years ago, every nukkad (street corner) in Mumbai had some form of dance class teaching people to match steps with the latest hit Hindi film song. From age six to 60, everyone wanted to emulate their favourite dancing star. Remember Hrithik Roshan's signature step in Kaho Naa Pyar Hai or Shah Rukh Khan's Shiamak Davar choreographed moves in Dil To Pagal Hai ? And who can ever forget Madhuri Dixit's thumkas in Hum Aapke Hai Kaun or Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan's semi-classical dances in Devdas ? Many women have spent hours practising these filmy steps for performances during religious festivities and other family functions.

But, believe it or not, Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon is no longer the dream of your neighbourhood Mansi, at least where dance is concerned. Moving beyond Bollywood latka jhatkas , Mumbai girls and women are going folksy with a vengeance.

They are choreographing their moves to Madi taru kanku kharyu , the popular Gujarati dandiya number, or Tim, tim timbale , a Marathi favourite. This festive season, they are also busy picking up rhythmic steps set to the groovy tunes of traditional Rajasthani, Naga or Bihu songs.“Even if it is an impromptu group dance on festive occasions like Navaratri, Ganesh Chaturthi and Diwali or the sangeet ceremony at a wedding, women want to learn the dance and then perform. They want to look professional and not ham around with some amateurish steps,” says Radhika Phanse, who has been teaching the classical dance Kathak at her Navarasa Art Academy, in Dadar, for the last 15 years. Five years ago, she began teaching folk dances too.

Folk dances are becoming popular because their steps are usually simple. Even those with two left feet can manage to look graceful! These dances can be performed on any occasion, and sometimes need only the simple beat of clapping hands to set the right mood for celebration. Additionally, they are group dances in which everyone can join in effortlessly and have fun.

Vinod Kumari of Kala Mandir Dance Academy, a school for folk and classical dances in the suburb of Andheri, is all in favour of this newfound craze for traditional Indian moves.

“Folk songs have some real heartrending lyrics and simple words that can express every kind of emotion to suit any situation. Even feelings of love and longing can be expressed beautifully without sounding vulgar. And dances set to these songs always exude grace, whether they are being performed by young girls or elderly women. It's really sad to see small children gyrating to Bollywood numbers on reality shows on television these days,” she says.

In India, there are plenty of folk dances to choose from, with nearly every State and region boasting a unique dance form. Of course, some are more popular, such as the Ghoomar, Kalbeliya, Teratali and Kathputli from Rajasthan, or the Garba, Dandiya and Tippani of Gujarat. Maharastra has its Lavani, Koli and Dindi; Nagaland has war dances and harvest dances, where the dancers wear traditional headgear, armbands and skirts that make a great style statement.

From Assam there is the graceful Bihu and from Orissa, the magnetic Chau. The southern States have Kummi, Karagattam, Kolattam, snake dance and so on, while Punjab's Bhangra, Giddha and Kikli can set the stage on fire.

Rashmi Chedda, an engineering student in Mumbai, recently learnt the Dandiya. “Every year, when my college held a Dandiya night during the Navaratri festival, my friends and I always remained on the sidelines as we didn't know the dance and didn't want to make a fool of ourselves. This year, we decided to train properly and thoroughly enjoyed the dancing,” she says.

That's the whole point of dancing anyway — to feel energetic, graceful and good. And only a great teacher can help his/her students achieve this complete experience. “I think that to train others, a teacher needs to know some form of Indian classical dance like Kathak, Bharatanatyam or Odissi. An experienced classical dancer can pick up other forms and teach them better,” says Rooma Banerjee,who has been teaching at her dance academy, Nritya Parikrama, at the ISKCON centre in Juhu, for nearly 20 years.

Rooma, Vinod Kumari and Radhika are Kathak dancers who have, over the years, realised that people, especially in Mumbai, have little time or patience for the hours of rigorous practice needed to master a classical dance. So they learnt folk dances too and began teaching these.

Radhika says, “In our classical dance classes, we have students aged six to 25. But for folk dances, we get people from 20 to 60 years old! In this segment we have homemakers, professionals like doctors, lecturers, CEOs and BPO workers, and of course students.”

Kirti Gupta, who studies in a South Mumbai college, is one such busy dance enthusiast. “I love dancing, but at present I don't have the time to learn a classical form. And my parents definitely won't let me dance to Hindi film music. So I started learning folk and now I don't want to leave it. All Indian folk dances have such fluid and graceful movements and I want to learn as many as I can,” she says.

Vinod Kumari says her folk dance classes are attended by several known faces from the TV industry who tell her that these dance forms are helping them emote better on screen.

“They pay Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh to learn acting (at formal acting schools) without really learning to express emotion. These girls come to me at night, after they have finished shooting. I teach them simple folk dances, particularly the Rajasthani Radha Krishna dance form, from which they learn to show shringar ras (love), hasya ras (laughter) and even roudra ras (anger) with ease,” she says.

Hourly sessions cost about Rs 600 to Rs 1,000 a month for each folk dance form. And it's an amount that Dr Sulochana Parekh, a gynaecologist, is more than willing to shell out. She says, “After spending gruelling hours at the hospital, sometimes facing difficult deliveries, I love to unwind. I find that dancing to the soul-stirring verses from our folk songs is really pleasant and relaxing. The charming, uncluttered easy movements of the dances make me — and some of my colleagues who join in — really happy.”

© Women's Feature Service

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