The right step

Dance is one of the most powerful platforms to express various emotions that we carry with us everyday.

It is a great way to reduce stress and keep fit. ‘Left Foot Right Danceworks’ (LFRD), started in 2013,is an initiative by eight young and enthusiastic group of dancers —the founder and a software engineer, Shashank, the director and a fashion designer, Moumita, also a software engineer, Firoz, a senior credit officer at a bank, Atul, an UX designer and data enthusiast, Vidya, a hardware design engineer, Azmat, a manager in clinical data management and Abhipsha, a project lead in a bank.  Since they belong to different professions, the main challenge that they face is the time constraint. Getting a good dance studio within their budget was a big challenge too initially.

“Dance to me is a medium to connect to god and personify my emotions to the outside world. It has transformed my identity, my outlook towards life, evolved my artistic mind and hunger to create something new,” says Shrabani.

The group attempts to bring innovation and create dance works with two different genres – hip-hop and contemporary. This is a place a dance lover will enjoy, as they see raw passion for dance being taken to an all new altitude.  There has been a significant upsurge in the popularity of these two dance forms amongst youngsters and budding artistes in the City. With a motive of integrating these styles of dance and bringing the best out of both worlds, the dancers of LFRD constantly encourage other dancers, who crave to achieve a professional hand in dance, and do their best.

“‘LFRD’ is an arena to propel the energy of talented dancers working in a day job and offer them a platform to showcase their ideas and talent. We provide teaching and performing opportunities to formulate dance as a feasible career choice for young people,” says Moumita while Shashank adds, “Dance has given me a whole lot of confidence and a new meaning to my life. It is a part of who I am, and has entered my life, taken over my body; it is in my walk, movements and thoughts. I have become a dancer.”

While some of them are contemporary dancers, others have mastered hip-hop. They have the same wavelength to grow as professional dancers, create an easy platform for passionate professionals and bring in innovation to the field of arts.
Their collaboration with various dance and events companies, as well as individual choreographers, for workshops has given them various powerful performances, including the EDM Music Fest at Hyderabad in April this year, marathons and many corporate shows.

‘LFRD’ also provides the economically weaker sections of society an opportunity to showcase their talent by providing them free scholarships and helping them support their families.

    “We aim to bring in innovation to our dance work in every show which itself is a challenge yet an opportunity in disguise as it pushes us beyond our comfort zone and  the stereotype of a particular genre and helps us evolve as a mature artiste”, shares Shrabani.