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Swing to a new beat
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The Swingers is the latest dance institute to open in Bangalore.
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The school teaches a variety of dance styles
DANCE WORKSHOPS are a norm this summer and Bangalore's latest group of new dancers will showcase their talents on May 28 at Chowdiah Memorial Hall. This mixed group — teens, adults, and children — has been trained by The Swingers, a dance institute that has been active in Chennai for the past six years, and has just opened a branch in Bangalore.
What makes The Swingers different from any other dance school is the fact that it looks upon dance as a profession and trains students to be artistes rather than just dancers. The differences lies in the fact that students at The Swingers learn not just dance styles and steps, but know all aspects related to professional dancing like lighting, costume designing, improvisation, backstage management, and so the like.
Prassanna Kumar, artistic director of The Swingers, has trained at and performed in several internationally acclaimed dance studios across the world. Trained at the Edge Performing Arts Centre, and the Broadway Dance Centre, New York, he excels in many dance techniques.
Though The Swingers offers various regular classes to people of all age groups, the crash course of 21 days has had children in the age group of five to 11 years learn pop lock kids in jazz, funk 'n' jam in funk, and sham sham shimmy in rock 'n' roll, while those in the age group of 12 years and above have learnt indoor jazz with hip hop combination, broadway jazz with theatre-dance combination, modern jazz with salsa swing, and lyrical jazz with ballet and contemporary dance. The participants will be performing these dances at the showcase event to be held on the May 28.
"We have dance classes tailored to suit various people. For instance, there's the corporate class which has cardio vascular workouts, special classes for ladies where more exercises are incorporated, dance grooming classes for small children aged three to five years, soft movement classes social for senior citizens," says Mr. Prassanna.
The institute also offers an Internship Affiliate Program from the New York-based Broadway Dance Centre where students can do a range of courses and then choose to audition for a six-month certificate course at the centre in U.S..
Techniques employed at the 21-day workshop that the students have just finished, included talent exposure, in which children are encouraged to create their own movements, positive reinforcement to help generate more ideas, seminar and resource sharing, where students viewed the techniques and the work of masters and dance critics through audio-visual presentations.
Says Mr. Prassanna, who has had children of filmstars attend his classes in Chennai: "Our aspect of dance is that of an education. People learn the fundamentals and take exams here.
We want to make artists who are one level above dancers!" This dance academy, which aims at showing children, a new avenue to follow, has special "coffee chats" for parents where questions relating to the child's scope and future in dancing are answered.
For more information and tickets to the dance event call 5203900.
TINA GARG
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