DANCE CREWS: HERE TO STAY

What began as a labour of love of the students at BITS Pilani in 2015 has now branched out as an independent hip hop dance crew, whose members identify themselves as the Monster Crew. They have represented the UAE in a street dance competition in Australia and bagged the first position in the reality show, Dance+ 2 UAE. Yet another university production, Hardeep Singh started Pure Bhangra along side a regular day job. He realised that dance — bhangra (a Punjabi folk dance) — was his calling after an audition at his university. The crew was featured in Farah Khan’s movie Happy

New Year; majority of which was shot in the UAE. “It was initially decided that we star as a competing team in the movie. However, that changed when the crew realised that there need not be two Indian teams, and we were roped in as background dancers,” says Hardeep. After carving their identity as a professional dance crew in the past eight years, Showstoppers launched their own dance studio. They conduct corporate and wedding choreography, and rope in celebrity choreographers to train their students.

Nrithyanganas is an up-and-coming lyrical kathak crew that was formed in November 2017, and bases itself on the

guru-shishya (teacher-student) relationship led by Vishaka Verma. Despite their busy schedules, different lifestyles and varied backgrounds, they come together over their passion for dance. OverBoys

All Stars took their love for b-boying or breaking to the stage with Arabs Got Talent, NSA Dubai World Series Finals, and other major events in the UAE. They were also part of a Telegu music video that was shot in Dubai.