...Finally I danced !!

Dance !!! Another one of the many expressions of art... And art has been an inherent part of me. Throughout my life of past 20 years, I have been exposed to various forms of art...painting, floral arrangements, Indian classical music... all thanks to my mom. Having learnt to play the Tabla for 6 years during my schooling, rhythm flows through my veins.. it has become an inseperable part of me. So, it was very natural that i explore new ways of expressing this rhythm apart from what I have learnt. I thought, "Hey! I haven't tried dancing anytime..." I remembered my school days; the school orchestra, the dramas, etc. But never had I participated in dance. I don't have any such reason, but the fact remained that i never explored my dancing skills. But now slowly I wanted to try it out. The recent dance competitions on television acted as catalysts to my thought and finally I made up my mind to give dancing a shot. And our college's Annual Cultural Festival came at the right time.

In my vacations starting December 2006, I had learnt Red Hot Salsa practising it by watching an instructional video. My dance partner Sneha and I decided to give it a try during the festival. We gave the auditions, got selected... me getting selected for the Group dance too. I was enthusiastic of my new venture.

Came March and the practice for the dance started. But I got a shock on the 1st day of practice when Sneha came to me and told that she would not be able to dance. I was disheartened but nevertheless tried to overlook it and concentrate on the group dance. But then something happened that brought a cheer to my heart. A girl in the dance group, Ruchita happened to know Salsa and it so happened that we two decided to give it a try in the Couple Dance competition...

With hardly a week to go, the first two days of practice had me struggling to grasp the steps... both in group dance and couple dance. But gradually I picked up and tried to bring finesse to the dance. Since we had selected the theme 'Salsa and Jive' for couple dance, I had to learn to do most of the 'guiding the girl' part of the dance. It took us about a couple of days to achieve a good comfort level with each other. And when finally we did, we practised on many different steps and yes....'locks and lifts'!!Now, I knew that I had to try to be as flexible as possible and expressive; since without expressions and proper gestures, the dance won't pull off well. But gradually I managed that, and Ruchita was also acquiring the grace in the steps with each passing day. Managing between group dance and couple dance was very difficult, but with whatever little practice we did, I eagerly awaited the day of 9th March.. the day of Couple dance competition!!

I wore a shimmering full sleeve red shirt apt for salsa with black trousers and she wore a red top and a black knee-length skirt. The competition started and we were going to be the first couple to perform. I was eager as well as tensed.. as anyone giving his first ever dance performance on the stage would be. I just prayed to God to help me pull off the dance well and the next moment the curtains opened.A loud cheer from the audience came instantaneously when we started the dance. The music, the rhythm and the cheering boosted my spirits further more and I felt like being in some sort of a trance.. We performed our locks, lifts and again a wave of cheer and shouts.. I was so engrossed in dancing that I didn't know how time fleeted by. The performance ended again with cheers from the audience. We came back to the Green Room and I was in a very excited mood. I thanked Ruchita for giving a good performance and Shashwat, my friend who had choreographed our entire dance sequence. And so finally I did what I wanted to do for such a long time.... Finally I danced !!