Moon walking to hearts

A group of young children — tired and sweaty — sat on the carpeted floor inside the banquet hall of a hotel in the city. An interactive session was underway. One of the kids asks the guys on the stage to demonstrate the ‘moon walk’. Two of the guys get up and swiftly glide across the stage in reverse, dragging their feet as if they were walking on butter. Amidst the ooh-wows and applause, MJ5 wins our hearts again. We have seen them walking in for an audition round of the dance reality show ‘India’s Dancing Stars’ (IDS). The minute they began dancing, there was a moment of clarity both for the judges of the show and the audience watching them — these guys are going to make it big in the country. And they did.

Three years after bagging the first prize at India’s Dancing Stars, MJ5 is everything that young dancers are dreaming of becoming. The boys have gained a rock star status in the nation — something that even the mainstream dancers do not have. Understanding the fact that there are people waiting to learn their dancing style, MJ5 has decided to tour the nation for dance workshops. This weekend they were in Kochi, for their first dance workshop in South India, in collaboration with Sreejith’s Dancity, Academy of Dance.

So what is MJ5? For the uninitiated, MJ5 is a group of five young dancers — R. Kartik, Rohit Singh, Himanshu Gola,Vishnu Sharma and Dennis Anthony. They are known for their unique dance style, which is a mix of dancing styles inspired from Michael Jackson clubbed with styles such as locking, popping, animation, hip-hop and Bollywood with a tinge of humour.

It all started when Karthik pulled in his juniors from college and decided to enter the audition round of India’s Dancing Star. Tushti Kumar, their manager, says, “They won the show on August 3, 2013, so this month marks the third year of their win.”

Karthik and Himanshu joined her after their workshop session. Still pumped up and full of energy, Karthik answers the first question. What is the name of MJ5’s dance style? He smiles, thinks carefully and says, “It’s called Iso Urban, which means Isolated Urban style. The dance has a lot of movements where body parts are isolated. While competing at IDS, we realised that there are lots of movements which can be made for the camera and made sure that every routine was magical. We added movements that could create an illusion on screen. We did 17 different styles of moonwalks for each routine. The judges had challenged us to do so.”

Himanshu adds along, “We used to do very basic stuff of what we do now. So much has changed in three years. The dance style is mostly animation. The foundation of our dance is ‘popping’ and animation comes under it.”

The group is known for their spot-on synchronisation and quick succession, which is hard to achieve without hours of practise. How many hours of practise do MJ5 require to pull off a routine? “We do two hours of group choreography every day. After that, we have our headphones on for the rest of the day and focus on developing our style individually,” explains Karthik. “We like dancing to all kinds of music and Bollywood as well,” he says. “But it’s mainly electronic and pop music,” says Himanshu.

Their rise to fame was quick, but none of it is taken for granted. They admit that there are no shortcuts. Hours of planning and days of practise make MJ5 what they are. Today they are highly sought after for events both in India and abroad. When asked how they are handling fame, the response is quite humble. “Honestly it’s not just us. We have a good team working behind us, for example, my brother is there, then there’s our manager Tushti,” says Karthik. “Each time we meet a well-wisher who recognises us, we feel happy. We feel blessed.”

On asking what their learning was from the workshop held here Karthik says, “I learnt the fact girls are also into this style of dancing. Lot of girls participated and they love to do this style.”

How confident is MJ5 each time they get on stage?  “We have been doing shows for so long, we are almost 99.9 per cent ready. We love to do this. And now the team thinks that we should promote this style of dancing. Of course, there were times we have messed up on stage, but we have certain rules as to how to handle such things now,” laughs Karthik.