Technique, Form and Fun

Dance has rightly been considered as one of the few, extremely hard professions to take up. Besides the many years of training that go into the making of a graceful dancer, the difficulty arises in hitting the delicate balance of strong technique, developing the perfect form and keeping the element of fun and freedom alive, once the body is on stage.
I have recently been very disappointed with the way dance is being projected on the Indian television scenes. Inspired by the famous "Dancing with the stars" and "So you think you can dance!", the Indian channels seem to be over flowing with their own versions based on similar ideas. Kids and adults all seem positively enthusiastic about performing in front of ace Bollywood choreographers and famous Bollywood celebrities.The excitement and energy of both, the participants and of the show are undoubtedly remarkable.
The concept hits the bull's eye in terms of the TRP's and on the creative front its amusing and entertaining. The painful part arises when the participants are asked to perform on genres which are completely different from the genre of Bollywood dance. The judges seem to be throwing a challenge which is not well-studied and researched into according to the prior training of the dancers. Both kids and adults on these shows seem to be either lacking enough technique training (as far as the western forms are concerned) or come without any training at all but some are surely gifted with so much potential that you just cannot take your eyes off them.

As a professional dancer with years of training and hard lessons learned from my teachers to understand the form before one goes about twisting them around, besides the sudden spurts of resentment that i feel when i see people applauding such performances, i more often find myself overcome with the feelings of pity for these highly talented dancers (especially young dancers) who are not aware of the right channels to improve their skills and seem to be throwing their limbs to entertain and for whom the biggest agenda is to qualify into the next round, without any awareness of technique and injury prevention.
Contemporary, Hip hop, Ballroom, Jazz, Classical Ballet and any form of Latin American dances take years of training before one can go out to perform them or at least a couple of years of general studio training.Dancers all over the world put in consistent hours in studio space to even get the basic form, posture, rhythm and meaning of any of these forms. The muscles and physical body requires a certain amount of time to acquire the form that is aimed for.
In simple words, it goes much beyond than just taking a Bollywood number to perform any of the above mentioned forms and sticking "you-tube inspired" steps and presenting the perfect recipe of a so-called original choreography.All young dance enthusiasts who are reading this need to understand dance not as something which is about steps but an art form which is well- studied and has layers of deep understanding (both physical and psychological)engraved into it.
Its good to have fun with the forms only when one has studied and experienced the seriousness of the form. The judges, like the participants seem to have only limited knowledge acquired out of their own field work but highly inspired from what they see on international TV shows. Most of the dancers performing on the international shows have spent years in training solidly in classical forms with the exception of a few who perform street and hip-hop but are well acquainted and exposed to trained dancers around them. The people judging these shows themselves have had years of experience, training and have choreographed some exceptional pieces of work with a very clear understanding of the body, space and the nuances of the form they approach.

The only show which holds any credibility on the Indian television is the oldest of the lot "Boggie Woggie" which has on its panel people who were great dancers and trend-setters in their time and even today any comment that they pass on to the participants, sounds well-thought and intelligent. The show truly seems an effort to showcase talent and escapes the "emotional drama" which engulfs all the other shows of dance.

The real life of a dancer is not about the moments he spends in the spot light but the many moments that he spends unnoticed, unknown in the shadows - training rigorously aiming to achieve something that his audience will never even notice but thats what completes him greatly.