| Ausdance - Australian Dance Magazine (Article 2001) | |
| The seeds are sown… |
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My journey in dance started long before I attended my first dance class. Having been born into a family where my mother, a trained opera singer, sung us arias instead of lullabies, I grew up in anything but your regular “Indian” household. My peers would be whistling the popular Hindi songs and I would be staring at them as the only tunes that went through my head were from Broadway musicals. Here was I an Indian - same colour, same schooling - but a cultural misfit!
As I grew older I realised that dance was what I wanted to do. I soon found out, however, that training in “western” dance (as it is known in India!) was not readily available. The only oasis at the time was a sweet old Parsi lady called Tushna Dallas who ran a little Ballet school with 20 odd students. So at the age of 15 I decided I would give it a go. I trained with her for a while and then felt the need to move on to learn other styles. I had a sister living in Australia at the time - so Australia was the first choice. All this happened at a time when India had only one TV channel run by the national network - there was very limited exposure to international cultures. So the choice of studying “western” dance was unheard of! In Australia, I studied Classical Ballet, Jazz and Contemporary - principally at the Bodenweiser Dance Centre - and then moved on to performing the usual round of theatre, videos, commercial gigs, etc. I returned to India in 1994-95 for a brief holiday and found that things had changed completely. There was a huge change - with over 40 different TV channels (including over 15 international ones) being broadcast, people’s understanding and awareness had grown. However, there were still no “western” dance schools. Therein were sown the seeds of an idea. To set up a dance school that imparted education along the lines of schools overseas. To provide an opportunity to other youngsters like me who might want to study the basics of dance, without having to go overseas. My next 3 years in Australia kept me busy working to save up money to fund this dream. |
| The Danceworx (India) is born… |
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| In 1998, I flew back to India and decided to give it a go. The Danceworx (New Delhi, India) was set up on the 23rd of November 1998. In the 1st month we had just over 100 students. Today, there are over 1000 students - 30 of who are studying dance full-time.
When I was setting up the dance curriculum for The Danceworx, I had to be careful about the fact that I had to cater to students who had never “studied” dance. So it was a challenge to make the curriculum fun and informative at the same time. For this reason I started out the school by teaching only Jazz, as that was a “fun” style and relatively easier to pick up as compared to say Classical Ballet or Contemporary. I became aware that I would have to introduce these styles further down the track, once the students had acclimatized themselves to the concept of “studying western dance”. One and a half years ago, I introduced a class of Classical Ballet and a workshop in Contemporary for my senior students to see how it would be accepted. I was extremely pleased to see that they responded with much enthusiasm - the journey had now truly begun. Presently The Danceworx conducts classes in Jazz, Classical Ballet, Contemporary. Special classes are also held for yoga and various Indian folk dances. The senior students (ages 14 to 24 years) have been studying Jazz for nearly 3 years. They have also been studying Classical Ballet for 1-1/2 years - first with Fernando Aguilera (of the Les Lyons Ballet Compagnie, Argentina), and later with Anastacia Flewin (formerly with Sydney Dance Company). Both teachers were invited to teach at The Danceworx. Besides this, they have also done Contemporary classes:
The ages of the students in the open classes vary from 5 to 65 years! There are people of all backgrounds - school & university students, corporate executives, business people, teachers, doctors, dentists, lawyers, actors, models, homemakers, etc. Their aspirations vary from becoming full time dancers, to become graceful, to keep fit, or just simply to satisfy a childhood dream…different reasons but one desire - to dance. The classes for the Beginners Jazz are taught by some of the senior students. The environment is one of fun and interaction. I urge the teachers to get to know their students - know their names, know their reasons, their fears, and their strengths. And over the last 3 years, The Danceworx has become one huge family - with students that have stayed on, and some that may have left but always came back. |
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| My vision for The Danceworx… |
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| Too often, we in the east see something from the west, get fascinated, and then do a cosmetic makeover of choreography. The same thing might happen the other way around as well with someone from the west. The long-term vision for The Danceworx is to expose the serious students to eastern & western philosophies of movement simultaneously, with varied teachers in each field. Once these serious students have complete 5-6 years of dance education, they would be working from a point of information and a more holistic understanding of both philosophies of movement. Fusion, then, truly becomes fusion and each dancer/choreographer would have a movement philosophy of their own, within that fusion. In keeping with that, their curriculum includes studying yoga, different forms of strongly physical Indian dance, Classical Ballet, Jazz and different schools of Contemporary Dance. A source of much excitement for me is watching the dedicated younger students - those below the ages of 14 years. I can only imagine the vistas that lie before them as they equip themselves at such a young age. It thrills me to think of what The Danceworx will be like, in say, 10 years from now - the kind of dance movement that will evolve and the kind of environment that will exist in this country in the field of dance. |
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| Reaching out to the rest of the world… |
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| To achieve our long-term dream, The Danceworx is constantly bringing in different teachers from overseas to expose the students, to challenge them (and the teacher!), and to broaden their vision. As I mentioned earlier, we’ve had Jaan Freeman from New York, who has a background in the Horton technique, Nick Hills, who was previously with the Expressions Dance Company, and currently Anastacia Flewin, who was with the Sydney Dance Company.
Our Classical Ballet division is in the able hands of Rosetta Cook (previously with Queensland Ballet), who is overseeing and laying out the curriculum for the students. She will also be screening and selecting Classical Ballet teachers from Australia for The Danceworx, India. The Danceworx is currently also working with Morag Dyers (from the U.K.) who is chief coordinator of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She too has been helping us in placing teachers within the school. All this is being done with the aim of forging alliances that will break cultural boundaries and pre-conceived notions. The guest teachers, if they wish, are given an opportunity to learn Indian dance styles, or yoga while they teach, enabling a “real” fusion of cultures. So while they teach, they can learn as well, as India is a country of vast cultures and different styles of movement. In fact, one of the guest teachers, who came to teach at The Danceworx, studied Yoga and BharatNatyam (an Indian Classical dance form) at the same time. It enabled him to enrich his style of movement with another influence, so vastly different from his own. Another guest dancer/teacher got the opportunity to act in an original play with a prominent Indian theatre director whose work is well renowned and has even won the Edinburgh Fringe Award. |
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| Building bridges between India & Australia ... |
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| Our latest association is with Ausdance, NSW, through which we are inviting student teachers from Australia to teach at The Danceworx, India. In this way, Ausdance, NSW will be actively partnering us and will, I believe, be instrumental in starting new thoughts and ideas of movement, both in Australia and India.
Currently we are offering an exchange of skills programme to dancers/teachers who are interested in widening their creative base through studying different forms of Indian movement, dance or culture (forms like Yoga, Kathak, BharatNatyam, Kallari, Chhau, etc.). The chosen candidate will be provided with accommodation, travel allowance, arrangement & payment of any learning requirements and an expense stipend. Any other individual requirements, details and logistics will be discussed and worked out in advance. In exchange for this, the candidate would conduct classes at The Danceworx, India in Classical Ballet & Contemporary for a 9-month stint (starting July 2002). They would be expected to teach a minimum of 10 classes/week (1 hour 30 minutes duration each). Now doesn’t the future look exciting? |