Get, set, dance: Flash mob had bystanders jigging to their tune

As the participants of the 5km fun run took their places at the start line, craning their necks to catch a glimpse of actress Deepika Padukone who flagged off the event, a group of dancers broke into a jig.

Unmindful of surprised and gleeful looks from the assembled crowd, the flash mob swayed to music as the audience cheered on loudly. Some of the bystanders, obviously inspired by the spectacle, did a little on-the-spot jig of their own.

“Dance is fun, therapeutic and connects people to one another,” said Aanchal Gupta, founder of Arts in Motion, a dance company that had organised Sunday’s flash mob at the Stayfree DNA I Can Women’s Half Marathon. Choreographed by Chirag Agarwal, the group had dancers of all ages and weights — right from a 50-year-old Rama Bishnoi to 15-year-old Mansi Gandhi.

“The idea was to just go out there and have fun,” said Agarwal who insisted that there was not enough time to practise with the dancers. “It was all very hurried and impromptu. But we are glad that it worked out so well in the end,” Gupta added.

The dance company conducts workshops and classes for several underprivileged groups across the city. “We have worked with street urchins, children of commercial sex workers and children with learning disabilities because we believe that dance should be used to reach out to people and bring them all together in the mainstream,” Gupta said.