Mambo mania

Choreographer Sandip Soparkar on the mambo dance from Dirty Dancing
The mambo dance in the song I’ve had the time of my life from the 1987 movie Dirty Dancing was a milestone. The way Patrick Swayze lifts Jennifer Grey is a timeless symbol of the beauty of mambo dance. It kicked off a trend in the 1980s—every dance enthusiast wanted to learn and experiment with the moves that Swayze and Grey made with perfection. Pubs and dance studios were teeming with teenagers jiving to the song during evenings.

I first saw the dance as a teenager when I was in college in Germany. Even I wanted to learn the dance. But my instructors at the Teachers Training School,Bonn,Germany,were not very encouraging. They thought I was too young for the dance since the mambo required some level of maturity and a basic idea of rhythm. Eventually,I learnt the dance from them after a couple of years and I was so influenced by it that I wanted to become a professional choreographer from that day.

The thing I love about the mambo is its versatility. You can perform it any way you like. It can be performed as a sensuous dance with a loved one or a formal social dance for certain occasions. In 2006,I choreographed Dino Morea and Onjolee Nair in Holiday which was my ode to the movie Dirty Dancing. I watched Dirty Dancing several times to learn each step and incorporate it in the film.