'The competition was intense'

The youngest dancer is nine and the oldest is 14. It wasn’t easy to train as the thought of competing on a world stage was always at the back of their mind. But when they clinched two gold medals, one silver and one bronze at the recently concluded ‘Dance World Cup’ hosted in Jersey, Channel Islands, their fears and emotions simply faded into oblivion.

This best describes the feeling of the junior dance team of Lourd Vijay's Dance Studio after they returned victorious. In an interview with Nina C George, Jayasmruti Parthasarathy of the team shares the excitement.

What was the toughest part of the competition?
Participating in a competition as big as this one is indeed a great honour but it’s a nerve- wracking affair. There were about 38 countries and 18,000 participants. It was beautiful to see everybody come together.

It was a challenge for us amateur dancers to tell ourselves that it was going to be easy and to stay positive all the time.

What helped you stay confident and positive?
It was the first experience for six of us in the team and the second time for the other two. The experiences shared by those who have been there before motivated us and gave us the confidence to move forward. Kritika Das won the bronze (solo hip hop children category) and Vinaya Seshan won the silver (solo hip hop junior category). We knew that if we bring our act together, then we would certainly win. It is our faith that guided us.  

Was the competition intense?
All the contestants came with a determination in their hearts and that ensured that the competition was intense. The technique, attitude and flexibility of all the dancers was very hard to compete against. Individually and as a group, the experience of competing on a world stage taught us a lot.

Did you have a theme for your performance?
The theme of our performance was ‘young soldiers’. For a really long time, people have been fighting for war but why fight for war when we can we fight for peace? This thought process formed the base of our choreography and this is also a message we sent out through our act.

Any valuable lessons learnt...
We discovered our potential as dancers and also realised that we have made our country proud. Standing on the stage, carrying the Indian flag with the National Anthem playing is a feeling that is very hard to put in words. We still haven’t been able to get over our victory. Winning or losing comes much later. The competition we faced there has helped us grow and become better people.