Groove to Garba

In order to match steps with revellers, Mumbaikars enroll for crash courses in dance and start dieting ahead of the Navratri season

choreographers for Nagada sang dhol in Goliyon Ki Rasleela:Ram-Leela conduct garba classes; Krutika Gada (Source: Express photo by Vasant Prabhu)

A mirror along one of its walls makes the room seem bigger, but the presence of 18 swaying students squeezed in it betrays the true size of the 12 feet x 15 feet space. The sound of a Gujarati folk song playing on a CD player has been drowned by the calls to move “back-front-clap-circle.” Given the space constraint, it is difficult for everyone to move as per the instructions but watching their teacher Krutika Gada perform the garba, eggs them on. “This room has more space to dance than one will get on the grounds during the Navratri season,” says Havisha Obhan, who has enrolled for Gada’s six-day crash course in garba. The 40-year-old has been running multiple such batches in the run-up to Navratri at her Ghatkopar studio.

For a number of hole-in-the-wall dance studios across the city, this is the busiest time of the year. As the Navratri season nears, garba and dandiya enthusiasts queue up to train in these folk dances, performed across Mumbai in mandals, grounds and housing complexes. “We start our courses during or soon after the Ganapati season,” says 38-year-old Ravi More, a personal garba-dandiya trainer who conducts classes at people’s residences. The dance master also offers guaranteed weight loss “between 1-10 kg”. “Overweight people are often apprehensive of joining others as they feel they won’t move as well or look good. My classes address both problems — by losing weight they feel fit and by learning the dance they gain confidence,” explains More, who charges Rs 250 per hour per head. He also gives students a basic diet for weight loss.

No other festival can trump the popularity of Ganapati in Mumbai, but Navratri comes close, owing to the large Gujarati population in the city. Over the last few decades, members of other communities too have begun to partake in the celebrations. This is partly due to the fact that the festivities have taken a more commercial turn. With popular Gujarati folk and Bollywood singers and actors performing at the many mandals in the city, dandiya and garba nights are no short of a spectacle. People turn up in their finest outfits and are only too eager to loosen their purse strings — up to Rs 5,000 a night per head — for a night of dance.

“You meet new people, make friends and have a fun time dancing to traditional songs,” says 25-year-old Pradnya Patil, a Maharashtrian who signed up for Gada’s course along with her sister Vinayaa. A marketing research professional, she hopes to join her group of friends on two to three nights in the Ghatkopar Police Grounds. “We’ll have a dance programme in the office too, where I’d rather be in step with others than stand and watch,” says Pradnya.

And with the recent success of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Goliyon Ki Rasleela: Ram-Leela, people are demanding to be trained to groove to its songs. In this department, Arsh and Samir Tanna are most in demand. The husband and wife duo choreographed Dholi taro dhol baaje for Bhansali’s Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and recently bagged awards for Nagada sang dhol and Lahoo moonh lag gaya from Goliyon Ki…“This year, people came to us in groups so they could especially learn to dance the way Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone did,” says Samir.

While it’s good to appear effortless while performing in public, Samir says, it is more important to have fun while at it. “If you get the basic steps right, it is easy to move with the crowd.”

dipti.nagpaul@expressindia.com

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