The Dancing Queens were first noticed by Mumbai’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community last year, when they put up a show at a little rundown hall in Khar.
Abheena, founder and lead dancer of Dancing Queens, is yet to find a stage vast enough to sustain the remarkable enthusiasm displayed by her 14-member dance troupe, and Mumbai’s first queer drag performers.
The Dancing Queens were first noticed by Mumbai’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community last year, when they put up a show at a little rundown hall in Khar to raise funds for the Queer Azadi March. The overwhelming response convinced Abheena to take a brave step forward, and actively seek out bigger platforms and mainstream audiences for their shows.
After all, Abheena aka Abhijit, a communications specialist for John Hopkins University, knows first-hand that the first step to self-discovery lies in transcending your comfort zones. At 20, Abhijit joined The Humsafar Trust as an outreach administrator and consequently was their youngest manager for nearly eight years. However, he knew when it was time to move on. He says,
“My intention was to open up spaces for dialogue between marginalised groups and a heteronormative society. I started working with bar girls, sex workers, migrants and intravenous drug users.”
Meanwhile, personal experiences led him to discover his transgender identity and he eventually adopted the name Abheena.
During outreach activities, Abhijit quickly recognised the visceral appeal of dance and music in overcoming the initial jitters people feel on the mention of sexuality. An accomplished Kathak dancer, Abheena’s initial attempts at drag folk dance shows failed to click. She soon realised that India’s rich culture of drag was a barrier to the issues she wanted to address.
Pallav Patankar, director of HIV/AIDS programmes at The Humsafar Trust, points out, “Traditionally, many Indian dance forms have seen men take on women’s garb, but by openly calling themselves queer, Dancing Queens are moving out of a socially accepted framework, connecting it to gender and sexuality, and making a strong political statement.”
The troupe is upbeat about its next performance on April 10 to raise funds for a queer film festival to be held later in the month.
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