City’s youngsters set the stage on fire with their dance moves

City’s youngsters set the stage on fire with their dance moves

Last weekend spelled creativity and culture as various styles of dances were performed at two separate occasions around the city. On the first occasion, a group of underprivileged and special children, as a part of Youthellinnium’s Youth Star Awards, welcomed the winter season. Though the programmes were held separately, the enthusiasm spread across all communities. The Youthellinnium dance academy, along with a non-governmental organisation, Aarambh, hosted some amazing dance performances at the Aagri Koli Bhavan in Nerul. About 100 students, including special and underprivileged children, performed 14 different forms of dance. They also performed on Bollywood chartbusters such as Chintata Chita Chita, Radha Radha and Main Aisa Kyun Hun. “We teach dance to children from slum areas every Saturday. All these children were part of the event. From belly dance to hip-hop, the children put their best foot forward. Some children also paid tribute to Micheal Jackson by doing Moon Walk,” said Ranjan Sharma, founder and owner of Youthellinnium. Students also won awards in 20 different categories as a apart of the Youth Star Awards and were given based on their performance throughout year. Students were felicitated in various categories such as dedication, growth, special effects, best moves, expression queen and student of the year. Sharma, too, gave a eight-minute performance, where he showcased a mix of hip hop, contemporary, locking popping and aerial act. He was later joined by his students aged between four and 55 years. Meanwhile, Vashi saw a cultural evening with Nupur Ballet Troupe conducting a small event to welcome the season and appreciate students of the troupe who have been around for quite some time now. The evening had a mix of classical, folk, modern and creative forms of dances performed by students of various age groups. There were three classical Odissi dances, in the form of Basant Pallavi, Batu and Mangala Charan; Batu was a solo performance. Youngsters’ performance was based on Rabindranath Tagore’s songs as well as an act from Ananda Shankar’s dance ballet. There were some performances on Bengali folk songs and creative dance performances on Adhunik songs. Around 40 students participated in the entire event, which was finely choreographed by Prantika Debchoudhury, owner and founder of the troupe.