From Kathakali to Cha cha cha …

It’s been a long and enriching journey for a girl who has been mesmerized by dance forms from all over the world at various stages of her life …

As a kid I used to watch kathakali and kuchipuri as aired by doordarshan once every week . I would be then practice the the steps till the next telecast, wrapping my mom’s dupattas as sari and wearing bright red makeup.Echos of ta thai tatha thai did amused them sometimes, or that’s what I choose to believe. To everyone’s relief I fell out of love with traditional dance forms soon and my next interest was Bollywood item songs .I’d dance every evening ( dupatta saris continued without makeup ).sometimes I would go to the hills near our house in Batote ( a hill station in Jammu and Kashmir) and dance for hours and hours in a stretch on the tunes of my own songs . I used to call myself a gypsy girl those days .

Then came the MTV fever...its virus spread like flu , I was a victim too. Now my room was bang bang with the likes of Madonna’s and Jacksons singing with me(J) … I still used my mom’s dupatta’s ,but this time to make wrap around or a back knot blouse on shorts … how can you dance without the proper look ! Ah those were the days of luxury. Everyday there was a different me...

I tried everything from head banging with black lipstick to the J lo hip shaking with stilettos...

And then came another turn in my dancing history …I joined an Engineering college where everyone used to love Punjabi songs. Yes ,Punjabi.And here I am not talking about Daler mehendi ..but Surjeet Bindrakhiya … and there is no kidding when this poor dancer was teased by all for doing disco on bhangra beats …was I to be blamed ..U can only empathize if you have heard those Punjabi songs ( I love them today , but back then they were nightmare ..) more so because if we used to party for 3 hours , for 2 hours we had to listen to this song ’ Tera yaar bolda ‘ .Then after a year it was ‘ Chandigarh kare aashiqui ‘ by B21. But then dancer in me slowly molded in to the Bhangra mode …and when I graduated after 4 years, I was known to do disco in Bhangra style.

Now the days of leisure were over. I started working in an IT company - 9 to 7 office hours, and lazy weekends .There was no time to dance daily. How much I missed my favorite pastime. How I wanted to dance on live Dhol again with bunch of cousins and friends, girls dressed up in ethnic salwar suits and lehanga’s. Glittering Bangles in bright colors, and sound of payal synchronizing with music …
I still play bhangra beats sometimes and try dancing in that small room of mine, but what’s this dance without the giggles and laughter’s of people around.

Then one day a girl in my office told me she is taking salsa classes. My eyes twinkled with a child like glee .This is what I should be doing. I have been thinking of joining salsa classes since some time. Luckily this lady started new batch last week only, and there I was wearing my dancing shoes again, excited like hell. I was so sure that as I have been dancing all my life, it would be cake walk. Surprise! I could not do basic steps. My foot moment was half , weight not on proper points , heels not down as they should be , hands too stiff , hip moments not too delicate .I felt terrible after first day . But then the very next day I wore a dress that flatters my figure , heels that aren’t too high yet give me perfect hip moment ,relaxed my body and let it flow on the beats of jive …one two three four and there I was in sync with music … then we learnt few steps of cha cha cha ..And it all seemed easy.