Pune’s got Talent

“I was encouraged by my teacher. She asked me to go and give it a try,” she adds. Essa Durhaime,Lad’s teacher,runs Diva Academy,where she trains her students in fusion dance – belly dance mixed with semi-classical,Bollywood,hip hop and contemporary.

A software engineer by profession,Lad has been performing since childhood but without any professional guidance. She says she loves dancing and it has been just a-year-and-a-half that she started practising belly dance. “It was an experience of a lifetime for me,” recalls Lad,who performed to Raqs Sharqi ,a classical Egyptian style of belly dance,in the reality show. Her moves were accompanied by a drum solo recorded by Gary Johnson,the dance academy’s drummer who is based in Canada.

The third season of India’s Got Talent is being judged by actor Sonali Bendre,Kirron Kher and Dharmendra. “All the judges appreciated my technique and my physique. They said this type of dance form suits my body,” says Lad. And the perk is that she need not do any exercise to stay fit since the dance moves are exhaustive enough. “Belly dance suits all female body types. You don’t need to be a professional in dancing to learn it,” Lad adds.

She says the dance form has become very popular lately. “The popularity of belly dance has increased manifold in the last couple of years. People are looking at it with more open-mindedness,” she says,adding,“If you look at it that way,even sari should be a taboo because that also requires a complete exposure of the belly area.”