A chance to shake a leg

A  two-hour workshop, ‘Master Class’, was held by the Tarantismo Creative Dance Company and esteemed choreographer Terence Lewis recently at the tennis court of the Hotel Lalit Ashok.

This dance workshop, which saw more than 250 participants, was a jolly affair for the ever-stressed City crowd. With participants from teenagers to middle-aged enthusiasts, the crowd that attended was quite diverse. Terence had an energetic and bubbly stage presence, which kept the crowd on its feet throughout the workshop. After advising the crowd about the various moves that he was going to teach them, Terence moved on to open the workshop with some brief warm-ups.

With steps and moves varying from ‘butt roll’, ‘football kick’, ‘top’ and hata sawan ki ghata, to other head, feet and shoulder movements, the workshop also included a quick jig to ‘Gangnam Style’. The crowd was choreographed to two songs — one the Bollywood number, Disco Diwaane and the other, the contemporary and hip-hop number, ‘Everything’. 

“I don’t expect everyone to be expert dancers here. This workshop is for anyone who thinks that they have two left feet, or can’t dance for whatsoever reason. Dance is for everyone,” says Terence.

Lakshmi Shravan, a classical dancer who attended the workshop, says, “I heard about this workshop through the social media and was keenly interested, because I liked the concept. I hope workshops like these come to promote dance more, so that it can be included as a full-fledged subject rather than just an extracurricular activity.”
Priyanka Bajaj, a software engineer, adds, “Since I’m new to Bangalore, I was very excited to be a part of the workshop. I was expecting to learn a lot from this workshop — and I have.”

Sweksha Malu, a student, was shopping when she saw the posters of this workshop. “I’m here to enjoy myself and get some tips on dancing,” says Sweksha.

The workshop was also attended by people from outside the City. “I came here because I’m a huge fan of Terence and of dancing. I was excited to learn Terence’s steps and practise his movements,” says Ghousepeer, a student from Narayana Concept School, Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh.