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Of passion and competition

Amrita Jayakumar and Ipsitaa Panigrahi

Have you ever thought of dance being treated as a sport? Have the awe-inspiring dance sequences felt like a far away dream? Dancers Dr Priti Gupta and Shannon Benjamin have realised their dream through the DanceSport India Company. In a country where Bollywood dance rules the roost, dance as a sport is virtually unheard of. So what made Priti and Shannon come up with this unique concept?

Shannon explains, "Dance is considered as a sport at international-level competitions, and even recognised as a medal sport at the Asian Games. We wanted to bring a feel of that to India." Their basic idea was to introduce people to the different Western dance forms and increase their awareness, Priti adds

Priti, being a physiotherapist, took to the art form six years ago when she started training in dance. "It all happened by chance actually. Various competitions and events gave me opportunities to go ahead," she explains. She had to choose between dance and physiotherapy, as justice couldn’t be done to both. Being a trained bharatnatyam dancer also helped her a lot. But Western dance forms came to her naturally and so she focused on it eventually. Shannon began his affair with dance during his college days, when he attended simple workshops conducted at festivals.

The duo’s association goes back to their years of training, where they met and learnt dancing at various schools and workshops. Their friendship gradually blossomed and in 2006, they decided to get together and begin participating in various competitions as a couple. "And we had the chemistry between us and knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses, which helped immensely. We actually felt that some of the 10 year olds participating in the competition were better than us. We felt a dire need for a place that could train you in all aspects of dance. That’s how DanceSport India came through," says Priti.

At DanceSport, it is salsa that is the most popular dance form. Being the easiest to learn, it had more takers initially and other dancing schools popularised it too. Ironically, the Latin dance form is not recognised as a dance sport at international competitions. Priti says, "There was certainly a lack of awareness about the other forms as they were more difficult and took time to learn. But over time, people are taking to the foxtrot, the cha cha, paso doble and many others."

Ask her about her favourite dance form and pat comes the reply: "The rumba — any day. It is the ultimate dance of love and one can experience a plethora of emotions while swaying to it. I enjoy the others depending on various moods but rumba is an all-time favourite." Shannon doesn’t have a favourite, since he agrees that the style of dance is influenced by one’s mood.

Having been in this field for quite some time, overconfidence has never occurred to them. "It is very important to be noticed and stand out during international competitions where 30 couples dance on one floor at the same time. You need to have a ‘look-at-me-I-am-the-best’ attitude," stresses Priti.

DanceSport India’s latest success was evident at the 1st Maharashtra Open DanceSport Championship held in Mumbai recently. Over 30 couples from all over the state competed in front of a full house at The Royal Bombay Yacht Club, showing off their skills in the samba, rumba, cha-cha and other dance styles. "It was a great success and has given us the confidence to hold more such competitions in the future. We eventually plan to take it to other states as well as the national level. In the future, we can have more couples from India competing at the international level too," he says.

One of Dance Sport’s student couples, Miten Thaker and Amishi Shah, who won in the novice category at the championship, also recently came 15th out of 30 couples at an international dance-sport event held in Singapore.

All things considered, dance sport is definitely making strides but has a long way to go in a country that is still "finding its feet" in this aspect of dance.