CHENNAI: Are you a dancer who wants to learn something new this season? Here’s your chance to get a whiff of Bachata, a social dance that originated from the Dominican Republic. City Express chats with Arun Srinivasan, founder of Salsa Madras, ahead of a free Bachata dancing workshop for beginners at Zorba Renaissance Studio, Anna Nagar today.
Though Bachata is not new in Chennai and has been popular since his first workshop in 2009, people are mostly aware of the form through introduction to Salsa. “Since Salsa Madras was established, we have been having many performances at the Salsa festivals and events, involving participation from enthusiastic dancers,” says Arun who has been representing Salsa Madras in other countries too.
With the interest in Bachata growing among working professionals and students in the city, Arun says he intends to focus on introducing the dance to beginners and create more awareness of the dance form.
“I want to let them get a feel of the music and dance. It gets them addicted! And following the workshop, they can enroll for a month in the beginner course,” he explains.
With the trend of Salsa nights and festivals on a rise here, he opines that they are the biggest inspiration for beginners as it exposes them to the world of dancing.
“We are making sure that there are regular events, workshops and festivals to bring the best to Chennai! Almost every salsa dancer in the city sways to Bachata at least at the basic level. A few hundreds I would say, but not all of them go out dancing often,” he shares.
The dance involves two people, usually of two different genders, partnering. Ask Arun if the ‘conservative population’ from the city have opened up and he says: “My intention of staying back in Chennai is to help bring this change in social bonding and respect for the opposite sexes, especially in a relatively conservative city like Chennai! It’s still a hard but things are getting better slowly. But Chennai does have the best social dancers in the country, be it Salsa, Bachata, Kizomba and others.”
Travelling to different countries to teach and perform at dance festivals and organise bootcamps, Arun shares an observation. “As much as people are surprised about Latin dancing in India, we have a mixed response about quality of dancing and the attitude of dancers. But with so much exposure in the last few years across the country, Chennai is slowly becoming one of the strong holds for social dancing in India! Though we have a lot to catch up with the rest of Asia and the world, we are making great progress!” he says.
Talking about the lack of advanced dancers in the city, he says, “Though there have been a lot of newbies constantly, we lack advanced dancers. At the intermediate level, dancers stop learning and improving after a point. They think they have advanced already. One gets to be an advanced dancer only when they realise that there is no end to learning,” he says. “We are looking forward to more international performers and potential champions in future from Chennai and definitely more people taking up Bachata for social dancing!”
With the festive season kicking in, Arun shares that special social dance evenings at resto-bars Sudaka and Drizzle are being planned. “I will also be teaching and performing in Sri Lanka, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and few other countries next year,” he smiles.
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