PUNE: The millennials have taken it up a notch innovating new dance forms in garba like hip-hop, salsa, Bollywood, bhangra, zumba, aqua zumba and Latin-American salsa garba. As the trend is picking up the momentum in the city, many dance academies are organising garba workshop with a mix of fusion style into it and the youngsters are tapping their feet with modern garba dance.
The trend of performing garba with a mixture of fusion steps started a couple of years back as it got promoted through social media, and now the youngsters have a craze to innovate new styles in garba so that it looks scintillating.
Just not salsa or zumba is introduced this year, but only a few got a chance this year to tap their feet on Latin-American salsa Garba.
MIXING DANCES
Vishaka Chandak, owner of Panache Events, said, “Every year, we organise workshops on disco and Bollywood garba. But this year we introduced Latin-American salsa garba with a tagline - ‘How Dhokla tastes with Salsa Sauce’. The dance was combined with Caribbean music with Gujarati grace.”
Sachin Dhang who runs Subhas Dhang dance studio at Camp, said, “Recently, dancers are interested to twirl in fusion mix garba steps rather than authentic garba style. We teach our students garba with Bollywood, salsa, hip-hop and bhangra dance steps. Last year, there was only Bollywood garba, but this year, salsa and zumba were added.”
BOLLYWOOD INFLUENCE
“Mostly Bollywood songs which have an influence of Gujarati version are taken up. Like the songs of Bollywood movies- ‘Ram-Leela’, ‘Raees’ and much more. Along with it, the most popular songs like - Kala Chashma which is available in Gujarati version also is taken into the choreography,” Dhang added.
Rahul Murumkar, who runs his dance academy opposite Pheonix Market City at Viman Nagar, said that the basics remain the same. “First the core steps of garba are taught to the students and then we start with salsa, zumba and Bollywood garba,” he said.
“People are interested in zumba garba because it helps reducing weight and is enjoyable,” he said
WEIGHTLOSS ADVANTAGE
Priyanka Gaikwad, who works in IT company said, “Last year, I saw Bollywood garba near my residence in Chinchwad and decided to join a garba dance class this year. I and my friend started taking lessons from YouTube as we do not get time to join the class. And now we learned Bollywood garba and we will perform in our area with a bunch of friends.”
Mayank Ghate, a business developer, said, “I was thinking of joining a dance class to lose weight. One of my friends who knows garba is teaching me and my friend Zumba garba at my residence. It helps me to lose weight and also its fun.”
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Rahul Murumkar also teaches dance to two youngsters with special needs at his studio for free. Rohit Sawant and Jaywardhan Vaidya are from Viman Nagar. Sawant has been learning dance from the last nine years in the same studio while Vaidya has joined the class four months ago. Murumkar said, “We teach these two students in a normal class as they get to learn easily by watching the other dancers. Being mentally challenged, these students do not understand the count, we have to teach them on the beats of the music only. They perform exceptionally well and our teachings are not wasted.”
