Take one: Doing a backflip is not difficult, it merely takes time and practise, says seven-year-old Mayank Manoj, with a toothy smile. He is one of the many students perfecting their backflip at Polestar Studio, Jawahar Nagar. Students of Sree Chitra Thirunal College of Engineering are in the next batch, all them swaying and foot-stomping to a hip-hop routine.
Take two: B-boying classes are in full swing at DR Crew’s studio at Vellayambalam. Ravikiran, a college student, is perfecting his “breaking routine” for a competition.
Take three: At BigFoot Dance Arena at Kuravankonam, Kevin Poulose, its founder-cum-choreographer, is working on a hip-hop routine with a group of students from Marian Engineering College.
The city is putting its best foot forward to swing to all kinds of music and dance crews and studios are mushrooming like never before. It is not just about cinematic dance. Hip-hop, b-boying, salsa, jive, contemporary, rap, and the always-popular Bollywood freestyle are some of the dance moves on offer.
And there are specialists too. DR Crew, for instance, specialises in b-boying, Polestar and BigFoot Arena in hip-hop and Rap Ruddys in popping. Aliyans, at Ulloor, is known for its mix of hip-hop with flips and jumps.
Ratheesh Karunakaran leading a dance session at Polestar at Jawahar Nagar
“Twenty-five years ago, when I began my career, it was just breakdance — steps we saw in movies were mixed with acrobatic moves. But the arrival of Prabhu Deva in the early 90s revolutionised the scenario. Reality shows became the rating winners on television and the shows became a high-profile platform for dancers and choreographers. Internet took the scene to a new level. YouTube videos and social media introduced us to new dance styles from across the world,” recalls Rajesh RS of Rap Ruddys, Killippalam.
Age no bar
At present, right from toddlers to grandmas, anyone who can shake a leg, are turning up at the dance studios. Their motivation ranges from passion for dance and winning prizes at competitions to keeping themselves fit. “We have people in the 60s learning Bollywood freestyle. They enjoy the moves, you know?” says Myth of DR Crew.
A workshop at BigFoot Dance Arena
Thanks to the proliferation and accessibility of social media, dance teachers have to be on their feet to keep up with their students. Sreejith Sivanandan of The BlackHood Ninjaz says as much: “Choreographers and dance teachers have their task cut out as the current generation is updated about different dance styles and its many versions. Hip-hop dance that evolved out of hip-hop culture has three main styles: breaking, locking and popping. But, later, several forms were derived from it, like jerking, turfing, krumping, urban, and several hybrids such as jazz-funk. To keep abreast of the latest trends, we ensure that we are not forced to go on the back foot, we teachers are forced to learn these styles. Improvisation is the name of the game. The youngsters have become so smart that they find a beat in between the beats and dance to it. Sreejith, a choreographer for the last 23 years, has many stage and reality shows to his credit, especially those on various channels and for Soorya.
Rap Ruddys crew on stage
Most of the dance studios are into teaching and performing at all kinds of shows, events and competitions. In fact, intensely fought dance competitions, which they call ‘battles’, have become a regular affair, with some of these contests happening outside the State, says Ratheesh Karunakaran of Polestar.
Some like BigFoot Arena focus only on teaching. “Our dancers lag behind those from other States when it comes to showcasing international dance forms. I started this space in the hope of bringing about a change and I am happy that it is happening slowly,” says Kevin, who decided not to hang up his dancing shoes after finishing his engineering course. In addition to hip-hop, his studio has classes in Bollywood and contemporary styles and will soon start sessions in classical dance.
Kevin Poulose of BigFoot Dance Arena
Best in business
The trend is to bring leading dancers to conduct workshops in different forms so that the studios are not caught on the wrong foot in the competition to gather and keep their students. DR Crew, for instance, brought Arif Chaudhary a.k.a. Flying Machine, India’s top b-boy for a workshop and to judge a ‘battle’ of the dancers. “Besides students of other dance schools in the city, we had participants from Chennai and Bengaluru to take part in the battle,” says Yanko (Vishnu Prasad), one of the key members of the studio.
BigFoot has five workshops to their credit: on breaking, house, hip-hop, krumping and whacking. Polestar brought in hip-hop legends C Mack a.k.a Kraig Evans from the United States and Raghu Master from Chennai last year for a “hip-hop and all-style workshop”. “We organised Tarantism Vol I, a one-on-one battle judged by these legends. The second edition to be held this year will be a much bigger event,” says Ratheesh.
At this time of the year, the choreographers and masters are on their feet to train college teams for annual cultural fetes organised by professional colleges. Sreejith has been teaching the team of College of Engineering Trivandrum for the last seven years. “We have to try new things every year. It was a big moment when they recently won at Saarang, the inter-college fete of IIT Madras,” he says.
Pratheesh P Lal of Aliyans
Ratheesh has been training the team of SCT and judging several dance fetes. He adds: “Our focus is on originality, be it in mixing the tracks or in the steps.” These choreographers also have students from other districts in Kerala. Aliyans, for instance, has students coming from neighbouring States as well. “These are dancers who follow us on YouTube, mainly because of our daredevil moves,” believes Pratheesh Lal, founder of Aliyans. “Dance contests are prestigious events at these fetes and some colleges rope in professional choreographers,” points out Rajesh.
So, the stage is set. Turn up the volume for the dance floor!
GOING STRONG
Some of the dance troupes are going places with their proficiency on the dance floor. The nine-member crew of Polestar was chosen to represent India at two international hip-hop competitions, Hip Hop International and World of Dance, both in the United States. They also won at Breezer Vivid Shuffle, India’s largest hip-hop festival, and were featured in a music video with actor Varun Dhawan and rapper Raftaar.
Aliyans was the finalists of reality show India Banega Manch on Colors TV. The 13-member DR Crew, the first b-boying team from the State, were runner-up at Chennai Street Festival (2013) and won the crowd favourite award at WOD India 2017. “When we started b-boying, there were people who ridiculed us. We were in Mumbai for a contest and one journalist wondered how a b-boying team could come from Kerala, which only has Kathakali! It felt good when we were chosen as the ‘best showcase’ at the contest. Now we have girls learning b-boying at our studio,” says Myth of DR Crew.
THE PIONEERS
Footloosers, perhaps the first dance studio in the city, was founded by five friends of Government Arts College: Babu (Santosh Kumar), Padmakumar, Praveen, Riyaz and Sajeesh, Babu’s brother. “Disco music was a rage then, so too songs of Michael Jackson, Metallica and Prince. But there were no videos to learn dance. Since I was trained to be a gymnast [because he wanted to become a stunt master in movies], I mixed acrobatic moves with dance moves we saw in different movies. People loved what they saw!” remembers Babu.
Babu master of Footloosers
Their school, opened in 1987, was named Crimmers initially. “I don’t know why we named it so! Anyway we inspired many dancers to follow suit. It was later named Footloosers, inspired by the English song ‘Footloose’,” Babu says. Footloosers now have over a dozen branches across Kerala and one in Dubai. Meanwhile, Babu fulfilled his dream of becoming a stunt master in films. He has choreographed for movies in Malayalam and Tamil and has now turned a producer.
FOR THE COMMUNITY
Trevolution is a hip-hop community started by Anand NC, an engineering graduate. “I wanted to promote unity among hip-hop dancers and showcase authentic hip-hop through battle series,” says the 22-year-old, better known as Zylent in the dance circles. Launched two years ago, its first major battle series held at Kanakakunnu, “sans any sponsors”, had 22 participants. “The number went up in the second edition and we had participants from other districts as well. Forty dancers battled it out in the third one,” he says.
Anand NC
He also runs Soul TV, a YouTube channel where he posts videos of hip-hop battles. “I want camaraderie among the dancers which is missing now. I am also hoping to collaborate with Indian Hip Hop Nation, a national-level hip-hop community,” he says.
