Give your soul a workout

As gym-goers battle it out with calories every day, the little that keeps them going is music. While the body surely gets a workout, what about the soul? Now imagine a couple of musicians performing soulful renditions of folk and fusion... and you've got yourself an entirely different kind of workout.

National Streets for Performing Arts (NSPA) recently partnered with Gold's Gym, The Qube in Marol Naka and conducted a pilot performance to inject a refreshing change in workout routines.

Fitness enthusiast Shruti Krishnan, Events Co-ordinator of NSPA, is the brainchild of this project. She came up with this idea while browsing through the Internet and watching a video of a flash mob performance in a gym. Later, she pitched the concept of weekly acoustic performances at gyms while its members work out.

"In the beginning, people were surprised, but when they heard the performers, they enjoyed it. Now, we have an established fanbase who look forward to their favourite artists performing again," says Krishnan.

So far, Abhisshek Chapke (pop fusion), Rahul Dandekar and Rohit Astekar (Marathi fusion) and Thomas Albert (pop rock) have performed at the gym. They are looking at an eclectic line-up of musicians to perform a blend of pop-n-rock, fusion and popular Sufi tracks at the venue.

While the idea sounds innovative, what about people getting distracted by these artists? "In our pilot performance, we did not come across an issue of distraction. The idea is to not create a 'cultural interruption' but to blend in with the environs, in the true NSPA style," explains Krishnan.