To say these young girls fulfilled their 97-year-old grand guru’s dream wouldn’t be an exaggeration. At this ripe age engineer-turned classical dance-guru VS Ramamoorthy lives and breathes Bharatanatyam. He had always hoped the coming generation would continue to practice, promote and popularise classical dance. Yet even in his wildest dreams he would not have imagined that the students from his Sri Rama Nataka Niketan would bring glory to Bharatanatyam through a dance reality show on national television.
The day after they returned to Hyderabad after shooting for the finale episode in Mumbai, the group of seven girls is back to business – planning their schedules to return to schools and colleges. There is no trace of disappointment on being eliminated after reaching the top 6 of Dance Plus , one of popular dance reality shows on Star Plus. The girls display a graceful tact that belies their teen years. Says Sameeksha, “The disappointment lasted for just two days. We may have got eliminated from finals but we were made to be a part of the finale and the organisers gave us an opportunity to perform for and with Prabhu Deva. Also we were there supporting other contestants.” Anushka adds, “We made such good friends with other contestants that we miss them now.”
Manjula Ramaswamy, with her father and Guru V.S. Ramamoorthy who started Sri Rama Nataka Niketan Photo: K.V.S. Giri
Sri Rama Nataka Niketan students entered the competition as the sole classical group, with Shakti Mohan as their mentor and took television viewers by storm with their pure traditional Bharatanatyam. Amid hip-hop, freestyle and Bollywood dance styles, these girls held their ground with the classical form, including different themes, songs and fusion elements in their repertoire. The judges and audience were spellbound by their synchronisation. One of the judges even commented that not just their abhinaya and footwork but even their expressions are always in sync. Also, it was refreshing to see their guru Manjula Ramaswamy doing nattuvangam . “That’s our teacher’s (Manjula Ramaswamy’s) training... she would check each one of our expressions, postures and steps and then approve. Only then we would get confidence that we are doing right,” share the girls.
Shakti Mohan who gained immense popularity through this show has been a great influence on the girls. Working closely with them, she meticulously monitored each of their choreographies, costumes, props and stage design. “Shakti herself is a classical dancer but well versed in other dance forms too, we are so inspired by her. She took such good care of us, she would offer her vanity room for us to take naps in between our performances, always checking what we would like to eat and after the elimination, when we were free, she booked tickets for a movie and sent us all,” shares Tejeswini, who’s been the unofficial spokesperson of the team on stage. “That’s only because I could speak Hindi well,” she explains, adding, “After staying in Mumbai for four months, all the girls can speak Hindi now.”
The girls list out the many takeaways from their Dance Plus journey. “Maybe because they were close to our age we gelled well with the boys from AVP group. We’ve learnt life lessons from them. If any food falls on the floor, we would ignore it. But they would insist that we don’t waste even such food, they would dust and eat it, value it more. That really amazed us,” share the girls.
Meeting and interacting with international artistes was another highpoint for the girls. “After seeing our dance the artistes from abroad started googling about Bharatanatyam,” giggle the amused girls. “After seeing so many dance forms, we are inspired to learn more. That would make us more flexible.”
Meeting Birju Maharaj, Shah Rukh Khan and Govinda was clearly an icing on the cake for the girls. Shah Rukh even tried out some steps with them, recall the girls with utter glee.
The young dancers are in awe of Remo D’Souza the super judge of the show. The leading Bollywood choreographer seemed to have won over the girls with his suaveness. “He’s so down to earth, he would just come and sit on the floor with us, gushes Anupama, while Tejeswini adds, “ He invited us to his beautiful house... offered us sweets and chocolates. He was very nice to us. When we got eliminated, his words when he said that it was a beginning for us, were very comforting.”
Adds Maheshwari, “In fact the entire production team was extremely nice to us, they would always check with us if we’d be interested in meeting any of the celebrities who come for the show and would introduce us to them. They were so keen to make every moment of our stay an enjoyable one.”
Analysing why the team couldn’t make it to the finishing line, 12-year-old Varsha shows maturity as she explains, “Our score involves public voting and in the south, specially Hyderabad, not many watch Star Plus. There was absolutely no awareness and no publicity.” Others agree, “When other contestants went back to their respective hometowns, they were welcomed with lot of fanfare. They were treated like celebrities. But here nobody even recognises us. Our own school and college managements were not aware of what we were up to.”
Yet they all agree in unison that they are “blessed and fortunate” to have participated in the reality show, not just for having to showcase their talent but becoming richer with experiences of life.
Here’s to their spirit!
