Bring on the spring

Sunday salsa meetups. Flamenco workshops in Lonavla. And now, films that capture Mumbai’s love affair with dance. Aditi Seshadri gets into the groove

It looks innocuous enough. Men and women strolling into a popular Bandra lounge on a relaxed Sunday evening. Out for a cocktail, some hip-hop, and plenty of casual conversation.  The doors swing open and a blast of piano and drums greets you. Excited laughter, flushed faces and swirling couples brighten up the dimly-lit room. Where has Mumbai’s swish set, with its well-modulated tones and measured dance moves, gone? Who are these people swinging around with so much abandon? What’s going on?

“Mumbai is smitten with dance right now,” says Rekha Shetty, 27, a graphic designer. “The music, the passion and the flamboyance associated with various foreign dances is drawing people in.”

It is seeping into busy lives and finding space in frenetic schedules. While millions are waking up to alarm clocks and screaming neighbours, hundreds others are awakening to the unfamiliar beats and moves of salsa, bachata, rumba, cha-cha, tango, jive, waltz, rock ‘n’ roll, flamenco, jazz, capoeira, belly dancing, and loving them. The attendees are a mixed bag, and include teens wanting to imitate their MTV idols to mums wanting to tone their thighs and grandfathers wanting to just have some fun.

Most of the people have not wiggled their hips to a dance tune in a while, but who cares? “The best part is,” says Shetty, “there's a feel of an underground movement. Not all of Mumbai is there, just some people who love to dance.” 

“Dance has mass appeal, unlike other arts which tend to be elite. It’s a great opportunity to de-stress, socialise and stay fit, and it is lots of fun,” says Aanchal Gupta, 28, who started the Arts in Motion dance studio in Sion over two years ago. More importantly, it makes people happy, as they forget about everything else for those few hours. Adds Gupta, “In our belly dancing class, women of all shapes and sizes roll up their tops to show off their bellies and wear scarves while dancing. No one cares how they look. Many of them have told me how sexy they feel.”

Salsa has, by far, spawned the biggest following in Mumbai. There are weekly dance nights organised by the Mumbai Salsa Meetup Group, part of a worldwide forum. The Salsa India Dance Company (SIDC) has a club and ‘Salsa Sundays at Zenzi in Bandra; a festival is also on its way. The city’s exploding attraction for the dance has even prompted a short film, Masalsa, by a journalist (see box). “It’s not just about the dance. You learn about a new culture and new music, you delve into its history,” says Kaytee Namgyal of SIDC, which is credited with bringing salsa to Mumbai from Delhi last year.

Filmmaker Raoul Randolf describes his first encounter with salsa at a meet-up. “I discovered a new world. The music got into me and drowned me,” he says. Shetty adds, “You have nothing in common with most of the people but you bond because of the dancing.”  College students, young professionals, housewives, business executives, middle-aged couples, friends, family, men, women, gays, lesbians, Mumbai’s salsa dos see the whole gamut. “There’s no question of staying aloof. There’s etiquette; if someone asks you to dance, you have to. You can go up to anyone, exchange partners, do whatever you want,” says Randolf. With most people facing a time crunch, it’s an exciting way to make friends, meet people from the opposite sex, and let’s face it, show off sexy dance moves. Adds Gupta, “It gives you a social edge.”

What started with salsa has extended to other dances. According to Spanish flamenco dancer Rossana Maya, who comes down to the city every year to hold flamenco workshops, interest in flamenco has been growing with better exposure. “I see more people coming in; they’re experimenting more and have a better understanding and interpretation of the dance,” says Maya, on her fourth trip to India. The Malta-based dancer has helped launch a seven-year course in flamenco at the Art in Motion studio and is also involved in a three-day camp near Lonavla.

Randolf, now part of the Mumbai Salsa Meetup Group, also organises ballroom dance and karaoke nights and tango workshops. Gupta keeps experimenting with her classes as well, including courses in capoeira and Broadway tap dancing. The studio sees 100-plus students during the week, the number doubling on weekends. Age, sex, profession and dancing ability — no bar. “The idea is to create a culture where people have this space to dance,” she says.

And what better place than Mumbai? Says Kaytee, “Mumbaikars go all out when they like something and they work really hard at it.”

The city’s already pulsing dance culture has just got another dimension which Randolf plans to capture in a film titled Dance, Dance, Bombay. “I've met all kinds of people, a tarot card reader, a Polish teacher, actors — for everyone dance is a form of expression. Dancing has gradually changed people; made women more relaxed and men more responsible. There’s freedom. You sweat it out and let go.”