When city-based choreographer Terrance Anthony holds jazz dance classes for his students,he wants them to try something new. Recently,while watching a Kathak performance,he had an epiphany about the similarities between the genre of dance he holds expertise in and that of kathak, which his fellow choreographer was performing on stage. He found himself brainstorming on how to fuse the two genres in a choreography to bring some excitement into the dance class he conducts in his studio in Camp. Jazz is the mother of all international dance forms,the same applies to Kathak when we talk about Indian dance forms. In fact I noticed that both the genres are based on footwork,which makes them compatible to be fused into each other, says Anthony. His assistant,a trained kathak dancer is enthusiastic about mixing the two genres to form a fun fusion for their students. Anthony explains that the jazz steps such as Vanilla Movement,Boogie Forward and Break a Leg amongst others are very similar to the steps in Kathak. In both the genres,the stance of the dancer is an important start for any step, he says. Anthony and his assistant conducted a jazz-kathak fusion workshop for dance enthusiasts in the city,as part of a 12-hour-long dance-a-thon on Sunday at Diva Bellydance Studio,Camp. The host of the event,Essa Duhaime from Diva BellyDance Academy,will also be performing and teaching a unique belly dance and kathak fusion choreography to participants. At Diva we also fuse the style of Bellydance with Semi-classical Indian,Bollywood and other styles which we teach to our students, she says,adding that for the dance-a-thon,she has collaborated with Purva Shah,a kathak danseuse to create a different kind of choreography. Duhaime explains that those who are new to belly dancing find it more comfortable when the style is fused with something they are more familiar with,like an Indian dance form. Everyone in India has been exposed to some Indian dance form like Bharatnatyam,Kathak or Odissi. If they have not learnt themselves,they have atleast they have seen it being performed at some point of their lives. Novices to bellydance are more comfortable if the genre is collaborated with an Indian dance form,and it also helps make any pure genre less monotonous, she explains. Though Shah is a purist when it comes to traditional dance forms,she too believes that fusion of different genres makes a performance more interesting for the audience. The proprietor of Purva's Nrutya Akruti,Shah will be hosting a dandiya,garba and kathak workshop for participants at the event. She believes that fusion is an experiment which must be carried out only by those who are thorough in their genre,thus she indulges in mixing different influences with kathak only with senior students. She recently performed a Kathak-salsa fusion for the annual meet at her institute. The music in salsa and kathak have four beats. In salsa,we leave out the fourth beat,but in kathak,we use all four beats. It is possible to merge the two dance styles together if you have a knack for rhythm and a good grasp on both the genres, she says. Shah also choreographed a kathak performance for her senior students to the beats of dhol taasha. While a band of dhol taasha members beat their drum according to their mood,her students improvised kathak steps during a live performance.
