ARTI DAS | NT NETWORK

Abhishek Soman and Jegatha Muralidharan of team Xtremers (a dance training centre), after their colourful performance at the All India Salsa Championship 2010 (5th India International Salsa Congress) that was held in the month of August at Bangalore, where the did Goa proud by winning the first place in the semi-professional category, are now busy preparing for the All Asia Salsa Championship to be held at Hong Kong in February 2011.

They will be the first Goans to represent Goa on this platform.

“For the first time Goa was recognised and Goans made a mark at the national level for the dance form Salsa,” says Jegatha who participated in this competition for the second time this year. Last year both had participated in the amateur category and figured among the top-9 teams.

Salsa is Jegatha’s passion. An architect by profession she balances her job and hobby. “I have been dancing right from my childhood. Everyday I take time out from my work to practice Salsa as I love dancing,” says Jegatha who has also worked as a dance instructor at David Furtados’s dance classes.

Whereas Abhishek, one of the founders of Xtremers, is devoted to dancing. When he is not participating in a competition he is busy conducting dance classes for children.

While speaking about their preparations they state that they focused on learning on their own and then re-confirming and checking with experts. They further elaborated that the India International Salsa Congress is the dance epicentre where one can learn more about dance.

“This congress was not restricted only to competitions. There were workshops and other dance related activities. We also had social nights where dancers used to perform on the stage through which we got to know about their dance styles, etc,” says the enthusiastic Jegatha.

Abhishek talks about the work they put in to prepare themselves for the competition. “Rahul and I used to visit this congress in which we have been participating for the last three years. This gave us further exposure to the Salsa dance form as here we met and interacted with international-level dancers and also dancers from all over the world. Thus, we got a chance to better our dance form and to learn more,” says Abhishek.

Till the duo dazzled at the competition, amazingly, they had not heard much about Goa at this dance congress.

“In places like Bangalore there are professional dance schools but this is not the case here when it comes to Salsa. Here you will find more awareness about Ballroom dancing. Salsa is a Latin American dance form and unlike Ballroom dancing it does not have a registered tempo. Though it is a very rhythmic dance form one needs to focus and one should also have a sharp ear for music,” explains Jegatha.

They are now happy about the fact they have taken a first step towards putting Goa on the Salsa map and are now quite optimistic about the All Asia Salsa Championship because this year they beat the team from Bangalore that had won the Asian Salsa competition last year.–  

Both now aim at promoting Salsa on a better and bigger platform in Goa. Abhishek adds that most times people just learn the basics. He and his team of Xtremers are hopeful of creating more professional dancers who could represent Goa on national and international platforms.