Dancing to inspire

For the last three years, five young students from the city having been winning several dance competitions at the college level. Little did they know, however, that they would one day inspire many others to dance. Five students — Sanskriti Sharma, Radhika Agarwal, Swetha Jain, Sneha Yayavaram and Himanshu Jain — have come together to share their love for dance and help other dance enthusiasts by conducting workshops and training them at their studio.

They spend hours practicing dance routines and watching videos of Michael Jackson and Prabhu Deva on YouTube. Their latest workshop that was conducted on February 4 and 5, saw around 40 youngsters from colleges across the city enrol themselves.

With such love and passion for dance, it was no surprise that the group witnessed an overwhelming response from other students. 19-year-old Sanskriti Sharma, a final year B.Com student at St Francis College for Women, says, “I am a trained Bharatanatyam dancer. We were all very passionate about dance, and instead of whiling away our time at the canteen, we decided to form a group. At the workshop, we taught the participants how to feel the music and form the steps. Several school-going, college-going students and working professionals attended the workshop. We taught them hip-hop and hip-hop/bhangra fusion this time and we plan to teach more dance forms in the upcoming workshops. Choreographer Sahaj Singh, who has been one of the finalists at a dance reality show, was invited as a guest to assist us. Our aim is to improve the hip-hop scene in Hyderabad.”

Many of these students took up dance to overcome social anxiety. For instance, 20-year-old Radhika Agarwal was an introvert during her childhood but after she began dancing, she has become more confident of herself. “I started dancing to overcome my shyness and eventually fell in love with it. I now wish to encourage more youngsters to start dancing,” says the B.Com final year student from Francis.

Himanshu Jain, a B.Com computers student at EThames Degree College in Panjagutta, does the marketing. “We’ve been using our pocket money to conduct these workshops and have been promoting them on social media platforms,” he says. His sister, Swetha Jain, 20, a B.Com student, adds, “I used to love dancing at weddings and functions in the family and now, it has become my life. I would love to teach kids at orphanages.”

20-year-old Sneha Yayavaram, adds that the group plans to dedicate their entire time to the organisation, soon after they finish pursuing their education.