CWG: stars behind the scenes

Choreographing over 2,000 young performers at one of the most popular sporting events can be a challenging task. But when none of the performers understands rhythm and is “blessed with two left feet”,the job becomes complicated.

For Mumbai-based choreographer Santosh Shetty,getting the students from 53 Delhi schools to move in sync to the rhythm and beats of Vande Mataram for the Closing Ceremony in 10 days flat was the main challenge. “To be honest I was nervous whether I could pull it off or not. Since the numbers were too large and the students had no prior experience of performing in front of a large gathering,” says Shetty,who choreographed the six-minute show for the ceremony. With over 15 years of experience,he has choreographed for the Doha Games in 2006 and the 2003 Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad.

On this occasion,time and nature were against Shetty who lost two days just assigning the numbered bibs to each dancer which would determine their position in the dance sequence. “With every spell of rain,our rehearsal schedule went haywire and the children returned home.”

Devendra ShelarChoreographer for athletes parade,CWG logo pattern

The mass of volunteers that descended on the JLN Stadium during the closing ceremony might have looked casual and non-choreographed,but Devendra Shelar is still a content man.

“We had less than 15 days to get over 600 volunteers and 300 marshals from the services to move in a coordinated fashion through the stadium grounds,” says Shelar,who has over 15 years of experience in performing choreography for live shows including the National Games in Pune in 1994 and the Hyderabad National Games.

Around five months back,Shelar was approached by the OC to choreograph two segments for the closing ceremony and he was rehearsing through the duration of the Games at the Army Parade Grounds.

“I had just four and a half minutes to get the logo patterns right. It was a frightening period of time and I was keeping my fingers crossed that everything turns out right,” he adds. The dancers had to follow geometrical patterns,marked out by the choreographer on the ground and that came only after hours of dedicated practice,says Shelar.