Article from the Sunday Times - International Dance Day!

There was plenty of dancing around the city on Sunday and a lot of opinions expressed in print too. Here's an article from the Sunday Hyderabad Times: (I'm only pasting it 'cos I got quoted ;)

SHALL WE...?

More and more Hyderabadis are putting on their dancing shoes to simply learn an essential lifestyle skill. Hyderabad Times grooves into the trend on International Dance Day

MONA RAMAVAT Times News Network

Do you dance’, has evolved to ‘What do you dance.’ We haven’t reached a stage where ‘I can’t dance’ is balked at, “but that’s not too far away,” says dance instructor, Simi Minocha, who trains youngsters in various Western dance forms. “I think you can gauge the popularity of these dance forms by the number of dance classes that come up every year. The number of summer dance camps almost double every year. More and more parents are encouraging their children to take to dancing, as they recognise that it is an important social skill,” she shares.
“It is a matter of the child’s interest,” says Sukanya Sharma, entrepreneur and parent of two school-goers. “But dance is something that seems to be more practical and simultaneously ‘cooler’ than, say, cooking or singing. I’d rather have my daughter learn salsa than sewing. A lot of parents my age have a similar mindset.”
Going by what dance instructors have to say, a whole lot of people have been taking to dancing, to loose inhibitions and get the fit, too. Salsa instructor Jeremy Brian says, “An hour of salsa burns about 750 calories, which is equivalent to an hour of running. So you are actually dancing your way to good health.”
It also boosts confidence and is also a great tool for socialising, considering that everybody dances in a party these days. “I used to be rather shy till about a year ago,” confesses 14-yearold student, Jai Abhyankar. But after he joined a dance class, he not only made more new friends but also “earned a strange respect from peers who would ridicule me because I would keep sitting diffidently in a corner, while they would effortlessly shake a leg at a party.”
But it isn’t just youngsters. People of all ages are opening up to the idea of dance these days. Agrees performing artiste and instructor, Pramod Sanghi, “Over the last three to five years, the dance culture in Hyderabad has increased by 200 per cent. I have students ranging from two years to 57 years of age. To get a sense of how seriously people take their dancing, just note that ballroom dancing is being introduced in the next Olympics.”
In fact, corporates too are including dancing as part of their value adding programmes for their employees, “to help them bond with each other better and also improve productivity,” says Jaideep Pradhan, site director of an IT solutions company. It seems like we are soon becoming a people who cannot have two left feet!