“And, the winners are... The LVDS (Lourd Vijay Dance Studio) team from Bengaluru, India! (announces a loud voice into the microphone). Immediately, the Indian National Anthem is played and we stand on stage with the Indian flag in hand, laughing and crying at the same time,” recall the young dancers about their winning moment.
They won a gold in the Junior Duet Hip Hop, another gold in Junior Group Hip Hop, a silver in Junior Solo hip Hop and a bronze in Children’s Solo Hip Hop at the Dance World Cup 2016, held at Channel Islands, recently. This was the fourth consecutive year that LVDS junior team has won medals at an international platform.
“This is also the first time that a country from Asia has ever won gold,” beams Lourd.
The chief choreographer and coach of the LVDS junior team Bharathi Kannan (popularly known as BK), talks about what went into the preparations. Coming from a “tiny village in Tamil Nadu,” Bharati says he got into dance seven years ago. “I would lock myself in a room and learn as many moves as possible from the TV,” starts BK, who adds that his family lost faith in him achieving anything in his life, so “when Lourd selected me as a coach for his dance school and also gave me the responsibility to train the children for the dance championship, I was touched. He showed immense faith in me.”
BK chose the theme “Young Soldiers” for this contest. “They are warriors who fight for peace, love and to create a better world,” explains BK, who adds that it took him and the children “juts three months to train for the championship. I was amazed by the children. I only had the challenge of being a choreographer, but they had to balance home, school, homework, sports and so on. There were days when they would practise the whole day,” announces the proud coach.
Jayasmrithi, a 14-year-old dancer, agrees with him and adds, “The challenge was to juggle through traffic each day. I was jobless till I decided to participate in the contest. My schedule was suddenly packed.”
Ten-year-old Sahar adds that she was impressed with “the easiness with which BK sir taught us”. Ketki credits her parents and their driving skills for “helping me keep up with school, studies and practise.”
Vinaya adds that the only thing she did not find challenging was getting along with the group and the trainers. “It was easy and fun. I learnt more than dance with them.”
Finally, when asked what they took back home from this whole experience, “Gold!” comes a loud response in chorus.
