Dance Along... International Dance Day

"Dance is more than mastering steps, it's about living life."

An art that has its origins in ancient Egypt that dates back 5300 years old and in India that dates back

even further (almost 9000 years) - DANCE. An art that gives you the power to express.  It makes you feel real from within.

The old Bollywood dance in the late fifties included a mustachioed hero standing still with a wilful lot of dance attendants circling around him to some interminable tune. Actors would keep a distance from their female lead and apart from running from tree to post it was just the music that was doing the wonder.

Until, in the end of sixties, precisely in 1957, an actor decided to break from the boundaries of old-style and experiment something completely out of the box. Seethed by a Westernized sex appeal the actor changed himself to a character. From a playboy, a clown to a ceaseless ragger with his Elvis duck tailed hair, tossed his head sideways, spun round, shook his hips creating a cinematic explosion and India had given birth to its first dancer, Shammi Kapoor.

From wilderness of Kashmir in Kashmir Ki Kali to the romantic evening lights of Paris in ‘An Evening in Paris’ or jumping out of snow in Junglee, Shammi ji had made his audiences shout ‘Yahoo’. In 1965 with Bhoot Bangla, the veteran actor, Mehmood decided to introduce India with its first free style westernized dancing pattern, ‘the twist’. Just a year later, arrived India’s multi thriller movie, Teesri Manzil. Not only did it popularize western music but overnight Shammi Kapoor became the ‘Rocky’ of every woman’s heart. The oomph, the glamour, the sensuality and of course the dance steps. From ‘O Haseena Zulfowali’ to ‘Yahoo’, Shammi Kapoor not only became an overnight sensation but also earned the moniker, ‘Elvis Presley of India’.

As India was enjoying its twists and turns, the western world was a prodigy took birth to an African American family in Gary, Indiana (Chicago). The eight member of ten siblings was asked to take up to singing and no longer he was a part of his own family’s musical band which was formed in 1964 as the lead singer. 

In 1965, America got introduced to its first dancing sensation, Michael Joseph Jackson, we popularly know as Michael Jackson (MJ). From albums like Thriller, Mowtown 25 to HiStory this dancing legend had made the world say you are Bad and Dangerous.

Although it was debatable on who first invented the ‘Moonwalk’, while some say that it was an American tap dancer Bill Bailey, studies and articles suggested that MJ learnt this step from celebrity dancer and singer of the R&B (Rhythm & Blues) group Shalamar. This was initially a backslide move of the legs and ankles which Michael later immortalized it as the Moonwalk. Over time, the legend continued to give the world numerous hits so much so that he went on to be the only singer to have won eight Grammy Awards in one single night which gave him the title, ‘The King of Pop’ by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1989 Annual Grammy Awards.

As we have crossed over 100 years of dancing, there have been many who have come performed in their own virtue. But these two legends have defined the essence of dancing through their sheer nature of passion and dedication towards this art that still is patronized by millions of his fans and dancing celebrities all over the world.  This International Dance Day as we celebrate these two legends, take the lead and let the other follow, determine the direction and let the other decided the journey. It does not matter the steps taken it does not matter how you look. Because all that matters in that moment is how you express!