On International Dance Day, as we seek to embrace diverse dance forms, none perhaps fit the bill more accurately than Team Naach. Their YouTube channel has 20,67,099 subscribers and some of their videos have more than four million views! Started by Sonal Devraj and Nicole Concessao at a dance studio in 2014, they are currently one of the biggest dancing sensations on Internet today with their versions of popular covers and semi-classical versions garnering huge amount of traction.
Both Sonal and Nicole share similar stories. While Sonal trained in Bharatanatyam for a couple of years, Nicole trained in Kathak, Bollywood dance and Jive, so they have a thorough grounding in dance. The two who were part of their college dance team in 2007, worked in different corporate roles before coming together to start Team Naach.
Nicole reminisces about their early days with a smile, “There was a new studio which opened in Khar, Mumbai and since both of us loved dancing, we decided to teach a class on an impulse. To attract students, we posted a song on our Facebook pages. We rendered Prabhudeva’s Muqabala in HipHop, Kathak and bellydance and got a lot of love online from our friends and juniors in college. That marked our initiation into the world of online dance.”
After initially shooting in the studio, and realising that they had an audience online, the duo started recording more routines. Their process of creating a video is simple: listen to the song multiple times and work on it only if it appeals instinctively to them. Incorporating a range of styles from classical to modern forms of dancing, they soon became the indie divas of dance.
Sonal says, “The biggest challenge with creating online content is to come up with something new and different each time. What works for us now is that we have a team that puts together all their ideas; and the brainstorming helps us a lot.”
Nicole admits that making content online isn’t all hunky dory. She confesses, “While we have been lucky most of the times, there were some comments on my weight and not dance. Mercifully though, they were few and far between.” She adds that what differentiates them from other Internet dancing sensations is their very doable dance routines. She explains, “Our steps are very easy and connect with the audience. Even a person from Rajkot or Nagpur feels that they can identify with our choreography which is the reason for our success.”
Today the sought after dancers have worked with actors such as Sonam Kapoor and matched steps with Alia Bhatt for a cover on the song ‘Ghar more pardesiya’ from Kalank. All the adulation around them still appears surreal, they say. Nicole says that they are still getting used to it all, “When I used to work as a Personal Relations officer and deal with bloggers/influencers I really wanted to become one. Today, that dream has come true and I’m really thankful for that.”
Nicole admits that social media has given them a platform to pursue their passion and credits all of it to her first Facebook video! As the duo travels to conduct workshops (their upcoming ones are in China and Hong Kong), teach students and make videos, their advice for aspiring dancers is simple — ensure that your basics are strong, understand your strengths and work on your weaknesses. Finally, for those aspiring to be content creators, they say that success doesn’t come overnight, so consistency is the key.
