Hip, hop and happening

Sheetal

When Remo D’Souza started a franchise of dance movies with ABCD: Any Body Can Dance, nobody could foresee that film bringing the much needed revolution in the dance industry. People from different strata of life have transformed their passion for dancing into their profession.” 

Hip-hop, one of the infinite forms of dancing, is more of a culture than a style of dance. The one that becomes an inseparable part of dancer’s lifestyle before they even realise it. One such dancer and choreographer is Kartik Raja who is trained in urban choreography and wears his style on his sleeve. As rightly put by author Amit Kalantri, “The job of feet is walking, but their hobby is dancing.” For dancers like Kartik himself, who started dancing at the age of fifteen and was inspired by Michael Jackson and Prabhu Deva, it is completely true. 

Working with the veterans 

 Kartik says, “It feels great to work with and train someone you were inspired by in the first place. Obviously, I was nervous because how could I teach someone who is a veteran dancer but that is the beauty of dance, anybody can learn from anybody. Dance evolves continuously and one has to evolve with it. Also, to my luck, all the celebs I trained like Varun Dhawan, Prabhu Deva and Dharmesh are downright humble and respect art rather than their ego.”

 Kartik was an assistant of Mayuresh Wadkar who happens to be his mentor in the learning phase besides Raja Solanki. He also assisted Mudassar Khan for Dance India Dance 5.   

City Beautiful calling 

On his first visit to Chandigarh, he says, “The city has the potential to produce more talented hip-hop artistes and only needs to create more platforms for the development of the art. I love the hospitality and love given by the people of Chandigarh and will make sure to come time and again to share my skills with the youngsters.” His own dance crew goes by the name The Veterans Dance Crew that also contested in Dance Plus Season 4. 

With various sub genres in hip-hop itself, Kartik as an urban hip-hop choreographer looks up to Keone Madrid, Bam Martin and many other artistes. So, do you think Indian dancers have come at par with the western standards? He quips, “Well, of course, now we have come a long way and most recently, the Indian hip-hop crew The Kings won the American dance reality show World of Dance Season 3. So, I think that counts for something. I think there is no scarcity of talent. Only the resources from government and more support from sponsors will help us excel in International platforms as well.”

While Kartik will be touring various cities for workshops for the next three months to reach out to more and more dance enthusiasts, he says, “My only message to budding artistes is dream big and work even harder to achieve them. It may take time but will be worth the wait. All it needs is dedication and discipline.” He is in Chandigarh for two days and will be conducting a workshop in ‘Urban Hip Hop’ for aspiring dancers at Ambedkar Bhavan, Sector 37 Chandigarh.