Giving ‘FREE LOVE’ on World Dance Day

The World Dance Day is an annual celebration and was established by the International Dance Council to celebrate the passion and revolution of dance. It was started in 1982, in view of attracting attention towards the artistic and cultural aspects of dance. Every year on the 29th of April; millions of dancers around the world come together in Schools, Offices, public places and dance to their hearts in celebration.

To join and participate in this global festivity, we at Veve Dance had for the first time ever, organized 'Fusionista' - Fusion Workshops across all our branches.

Belly Dance - Kathak Fusion

Our director Veronica Simas de Souza conducted the Belly dance – Kathak fusion workshop at our Andheri branch. Veronica is a trained Kathak dancer and has been learning this dance form, from Padmashree Sunayana Hazarilal since the past 7 years and very recently presented her Rangpravesh ‘Solo-debut’ performance. 

She started the evening with a warm-up dance on the famous ‘Dil cheez kya hai’ song from the movie Umrao Jaan. Students were taught a couple of Kathak arm movements and were also guided on how to use these to frame various belly dance moves. Students were also taught basic Kathak steps and spins and they danced on many famous Kathak flavored songs like ‘Maar daala’ and ‘Kaahe chhed mohe’ from the movie ‘Devdas’.

It was a very unique workshop for all those present, because, this fusion of belly dance with Indian classical dance form of Kathak was taught very passionately by a part Brazilian - part Peruvian dancer to a spirited crowd of Indian girls.

Belly Dance - Bollywood dance Fusion

The second workshop of the evening, Belly dance – Bollywood dance fusion workshop was conducted by our Senior Instructor Sanjana Muthreja at our Andheri branch. Sanjana’s passion for dancing began with the freestyle Bollywood dance form. Before joining Veronica as a Belly dance instructor, Sanjana was a trained Bollywood instructor. 

Beginning with warm-up and all the way till cool down, Sanjana played and made the students dance to many fast paced and well-known Bollywood songs like Prabhu Deva’s ‘Muqabla’, Saat Samundar Paar, Shilpa Shetty's iconic ‘UP Bihar’ etc. Sanjana created a heady mix of different combinations, flawlessly fusing Belly dance moves with Bollywood latkhas, jhatkas and nakharas and finishing the workshop with an uproarious applause from the students in the end.

Belly Dance - Bhangra Fusion

For the first time ever in Mumbai, a very unique fusion; Belly dance – Bhangra fusion workshop was conducted by our Senior Instructor Dipika Vijay at our Andheri branch. Being a Punjabi, Dipika has grown up watching and learning at Weddings and many cultural events, the beautiful and earthy dance form of Bhangra, nowadays made famous by many Bollywood movies. She has also seen the performances of many professional Sikh troops’ and has made a study of the same.

The workshop started with Dipika sharing her knowledge about the dance form. She then taught the students various ‘thet pindi’ Bhangra and Gidda steps, demonstrated the difference between the two and mixed and made various belly and Bhangra combos. In the time slot of 2 hrs, she danced her way through 25-26 hi-octane energetic songs, that included ‘Ainvayi Ainvayi’ from the movie ‘Band Baaja Baarat’, ‘Mundian to bachke rahi’ by Punjabi MC, ‘Sadi galli’ from the movie ‘Nautanki Saala’ etc . By the end of the workshop, the students were happily buzzed out and red with blood rush.

Belly Dance - Hip-hop Fusion

The Fusion workshop of Belly dancing - Hip-hop was conducted at our Sion branch by Instructor Namrata Randhawa. Namrata a highly motivated and natural hip-hop dancer has honed her skills by training under various well-known instructors.

Students were taught basic Hip-hop moves & footwork and the technique of fusing them with Belly Dance moves. They also learnt many new and innovative combinations. All the swagger and the attitude was brought on the floor when the group picked out numbers like 'Buttons' by 'Pussy Cat Dolls', 'Move that body' by 'Nelly' etc.

The finale of the workshop was a Dance battle a la Hip-Hop style. The students were divided into 2 groups and battled each other one-on-one, in duets and also as a team. It was a wonderful feeling to watch our students let go of allll their inhibitions and battling each other with groovy moves.

Flamenco Oriental

Belly Dance - Flamenco Fusion

The very much in demand, Flamenco Oriental - fusion workshop of Belly dance and Flamenco was conducted at our Lower Parel branch by instructor Aakriti. This beautiful dance form from Andulasia holds a very special place in Aakriti’s heart and she has rigorously trained for the same, under Veronica.

Veronica has herself learnt and trained for this dance form under Master ‘Candela Soto’ at Amor de Dios, Madrid, the best and oldest institution of Flamenco in Spain.

The workshop began with the students learning fundamental Flamenco arms and moves. Then they were taught how to incorporate these arm movements into the belly dance routine, giving our authentic raqs sharqi a Spanish gypsy touch. Traditional alegrias, soleas and bulerias rhythms were played in the class to match with the hip sways, along with some of the best of belly dance and flamenco fusion music which was specially picked for the workshop. Students also danced on a few Flamenco inspired songs like ‘Udi’ from the movie ‘Guzaarish’, ‘Senorita’ from the movie ‘Zindagi na Milegi dobara’ etc. 

Through and through, twas a highly successful event, the credit for which goes to the unconditional support, love and participation of alll our students. A mighty thanks and huge applause for one and all who took part in Fusionista.

Some feedback and testimonies we received from our students-

Ravina Dahiya : Awesome workout. The best Fun class by Veve Dance… :D

Lucky and Proud to be a part of it :)

Thank you sooo much for putting up these workshops.. LOVED IT :) Can’t get over with it :)

Nidhi Bharwada : Had loads of fun in today class…. Love u guys.. Thanks…. :) 

Diya Raheja : Awsome fun classes!!! Thank you sooo much :D :D

Snehal Shende : Thankyou for such a wonderful hiphop belly fusion workshop. Loved it.

Sanjana Sharma : It was superbb Fun and the instructors were too good. So grateful to have them. The Fusion.. I never thought, anything like that could be done using belly dance.

Khushbu Patel : Hip-hop is in my body and belly is my love. So i enjoyed thoroughly those moment spent with my love :)
Had lots of funn  :)

Anjana Vaswani : The only thing more fun than dance and drama is a little more dance and drama. Blending flamenco with our belly dancing session made it even more fun than usual and that says a lot because with our instructors every class is a party.

Prajakta Prajapati : Really enjoyed the fusion and saw something new. Looking forward to more such fun events!


Looking forward for the World Dance Day, 2014 and plans are already underway to make Fusionista-2014 a much larger and rocking event.

 -xoxo

Megha