Urban dance looking

Western dance forms have always caught the attention of young Indians of every generation. While Hyderabad is still not so happening in terms of learning western dance form, there is visible growth in the number of people veering towards west.

The all time favourites remain the evergreen Hip -Hop and Belly Dance, there is a new found interest in Urban Choreography-based style. There is also a rise in people, who are learning different dance forms for professional reasons.

Founder and director of Steps Dance Studio Prithviraj, who provides training in Jazz, Ballet, Hip Hop, Jazz Funk, Salsa, Ballroom, Zumba and Contemporary dance, shares, “Most popular western style is Hip-Hop. More than 180 people join us and select different styles to learn, however around 50% among them prefer Hip-Hop and free style.”

Prithviraj hails from Chennai and is into teaching dance since 13 years. His mother is a Bharatanatyam dancer. He transformed his immense interest towards dance into a full-time career and pursued ‘Russian Ballet’ from Chennai and New York. He later learnt contemporary dance in Bangalore.

He shares, “In 2003, I moved to Hyderabad to start my own dance school ‘STEPS Dance Studio’ located in Banjara Hills. Later, he moved to New York City to pursue rigorous professional training at Steps on Broadway. He mastered the techniques of Hip-Hop, Modern dance, Jazz Ballet, and Jazz Funk.

“Western dance is still not very popular in Hyderabad. We are trying to create awareness. It is since 3 years that dance has taken the form of fitness. For example, Zumba is very famous now-a-days - it has a simple dance moves; there is no technique in doing it.

But on other hand Jazz, Ballet, Hip Hop and contemporary involve technique. Another problem is that mostly people are influenced by Bollywood. In Hyderabad there is very little number of people adopting western style.

According to me we should learn different culture forms too.” Prithviraj states. People confuse Bollywood with western, but once they start learning is when they realise the difference.