Hindustan Times (Lucknow) - Hindustan Times (Lucknow) - Live
Lucknowites up their dancing skills
With the ongoing festival of Navratri, city folks have left no stone unturned in keeping their best foot forward for the festive season. Youngsters are being spotted in their best traditional and fashionable avtars during various Dandiya events in Lucknow.
Shefali Sharma, a college student, is fond of dancing and enjoys Dandiya outings with friends. “As the virus has not left our planet yet so precautions are in place but this year when I got this opportunity to be a part of Navratri event, after a dull 2020, I decided to make the most of it. And for that I knew first of all I need to brush my dancing skills. So, I enrolled for three-day online course to step up for the occasion.”
According to Latin dance expert and city-based choreographer Ayaz Sheikh says, “I along with a few of my students trained two different groups this time for the festivities. Last year, nothing much could be done but this year as Navratri approached we came up with offline batches where people were trained and within no time they learnt perfect steps to rock at Dandiya nights.
Students of kathak guru Pt Anuj Mishra too organised online classes for young Lucknowites who were keen to present their best dandiya moves. “It’s a great away to connect with the art of dancing especially for youngsters as for many it could turn into a lifelong association with our traditional dance forms,” says Pt Mishra.
Other than dancing, another trend that was witnessed around was how pandal hoppers and Dandiya rockers from Lucknow tried to recycle and restyle for festivities this year.
Budding designer Yamina Hussain says, “The trend is here to stay postlockdown as we were all stuck with no outings and festivities. Our best attires were lying wasted in cupboards! So when this year some of us got a chance to go out and celebrate then those attires came into use. But, to keep up with latest trends, many youngsters mix matched their old ones with the new to come up with some interesting attires.
Many youngsters shopped online and added some new stuff to redesign their old outfits. Student, Deeksha Bajpai says, “Why to buy new stuff when I have so many unworn traditional dresses. So, I restyled and came up with multiple Indowestern looks for festivals this year. Not just me many of my friends and cousins are following this pattern too.”