Odisha’s Sumon Rudra and other world class dancers joined hands to cheer people up and gave dance lessons for netizens to feel more rejuvenated during this difficult phase of lockdown
BHUBANESWAR: The rapid spread of coronavirus in many parts of the world has made phrases such as ‘social distancing’ and ‘self-quarantine’ a part of our life now. Many countries have advised citizens to cancel public gatherings, events, schools and hobby centres. People have been asked to work from home and spend time in isolation for 14 days at least. This means, people are spending countless hours in front of the television and mobile phones and are not getting enough exercise.
To alleviate the depression and anxiety caused by the pandemic across the world, 10 world class dancers from different countries collaborated to start intensive yet fun dance training for everyone around the world.
These dancers are in isolation in their respective countries like Greece, Spain and France and are giving dance lessons – under the initiative called Digital Dance Collective— online to dance enthusiasts. One of these 10 talented dancers is Odisha boy Sumon Rudra who is an accomplished dance instructor, choreographer, and performer at Bollywood Dance Academy in Greece. Rudra had made the state proud earlier by performing and choreographing for the Greek version of ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ (SYTYCD) in 2017. The same year he had participated in ‘Greece Got Talent’ and impressed everybody with his moves.
Participants taking part in the online dance tutorial
Talking to Orissa POST, Rudra said, “This is a unique event at a unique time in our lives. The classes were organised March 22 and 23 for over 10 hours to exercise and rejuvenate the body and mind, connect with each other and learn a few fun steps.
What started as a small Whatsapp conversation between a few artists became a global event.
Anna Dimitratou
The dancers gave lessons on different dance forms such as Kathak Fusion, Bhangra, Tollywood ( Telugu industry), Kollywood/ Kuthu (Tamil Industry), Bollywood, Rajasthani fusion, Bollywood Bellydance fusion and others. Each artist in the collective had chosen to teach for free at this precarious time. Everyone was welcome to join in.
He said, “Due to coronavirus, we all are out of jobs and we are not earning anything as artists. We kept the event purely on donation basis. If any student wants to contribute they can, otherwise it is fine!”
The group was joined by 2,000 members online.
Rudra said, “Greece is under complete lockdown. All schools, markets including our dance studios are closed for now. This is the time to be positive that it will pass soon.
Vinatha Sreeramkumar
The dancer-cum instructors who were a part of Digital Dance Collective are Anna Dimitratou (Greece) Sneha Mistri ( Spain) Amine Amoura ( France) Daniel Paul ( Finland) Jasvinder Singh ( Spain) Vinatha Sreeramkumar (Spain) Ilona Kolachana( Finland) Kinga Malec(Poland) Pavan Prasad( Germany) and Sumon Rudra (Greece). Some of the dancers have Indian roots and are all settled in Europe. (This event is brainchild of Anna , Sneha and Amine)
Rudra’s parents live in Rourkela and are under self-quarantine at the moment. Apart from Rudra, Daniel, Vinatha, Pavan and Jasvinder are settled in Europe and have relatives in India.
“We hope that Indians back home take coronavirus more seriously than they are doing so that they don’t lose their loved ones as many already did worldwide.”
This project was aimed at uniting artists and helping those who have to stay indoors. After the huge response, another session is planned for April 4.
Odisha boy Sumon Rudra is a choreographer, teacher and performer currently based in Athens ,Greece. He holds two diplomas in Contemporary dance ,apart from a B.Tech in Biotechnology engineering, and is the first Indian dancer to receive a Diploma in Contemporary Dance from the Ministry of Culture ,Greece in 2017.
Apart from Contemporary dance , he specializes in Bollywood dance. He introduced Bollywood dance in ‘So You Think You Can Dance Greece’ and choreographed the semi-finals and Grand Finale of the show. He, along with the professional team from the 1st Bollywood Dance Academy, were the first Bollywood dance group to make it to the semi-finals of ‘Greece Got Talent’ in 2017.
Sumon teaches Bollywood and contemporary dance in various dance schools in Athens . He travels extensively, teaching and performing at various dance festivals all over Europe.
Arindam Ganguly, OP