BENGALURU: Dance solves every issue, says Bollywood choreographer Marzi Pestonji, who was in the city on Wednesday with dance master Shiamak Davar to selected talented youngsters from the underprivileged section of the society for a programme.
“This one-year programme is part of Davar’s mission to help dance enthusiasts make their passion a profession. It is his belief that every dancer should have an equal opportunity to get quality dance training, regardless of their economic status,” says Marzi.
In order to provide this opportunity to such dancers with limited means, 30 individuals that get selected for the programme will be granted full scholarship supported by BookASmile, which is a BookMyShow initiative. The dancers will travel to Mumbai and get trained under the choreographers for a year.
Getting candid about his dancing career, Marzi says, “Dance means everything to me and the best part about dancing is that, you release all your stress and enjoy it. It is like the flow of a waterfall where there is nothing but serenity.” With time, dance has become a vehicle to ensure well-being and is used as a medical tool to treat anxiety, depression and even physical issues like Polio, he mentions.
“My initial memory of dancing was when I walked into Davar’s training institute and did the basic steps of dance. Before I realised, I was choreographing steps for Bollywood and judging shows on television,” he says. Though Marzi wanted to be an engineer, dance was perhaps his calling. According to him, dance is not just any other co-curricular but is lucrative enough to be taken as a career. “Believe me, we make so much money in dance that the need to do something else doesn’t arise at all,” he adds.
Remembering Helen, the dancing queen, Marzi says, “There has been no one like Helenji, but over the years, dance has changed in Bollywood. Now, people are trying different contemporary steps, which is wonderful. Also, the aesthetic aspect is better today.”
Giving a piece of advice to aspiring dancers, he says training is extremely important and one must keep training. He also adds that reality shows can be thought about after one has trained themselves completely.