Chandigarh warms up to Salsa, move over Bhangra

Chandigarh, of late, has started to open up to new art forms — not just in music and theatre, but also in dance. The city, which was largely oblivious to Salsa until recently, now boasts of avenues where one could learn the glitzy and saucy Latin-American dance form.

Chandigarh, of late, has started to open up to new art forms — not just in music and theatre, but also in dance. The city, which was largely oblivious to Salsa until recently, now boasts of avenues where one could learn the glitzy and saucy Latin-American dance form.

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The hall at Ambedkar Bhavan, Sector 37-A, brimmed with Salsa enthusiasts this Saturday, most of whom did not know more than a thing or two about this form.

Abhi Khajuria, a choreographer who has a studio in Sector 8, has been teaching Salsa in the city for the last one year.

“People here are conservative. They would not send their boys and girls to learn something that is fun and unconventional,” said he, who learnt the dance form in Bangalore and has spent some time honing his skills and teaching in Delhi.

“People do not know about Salsa Socials here. It is a brilliant way of engaging people socially through Salsa, which is essentially a social a dance form,” he said.

Gen-Y in the city is eager to learn Salsa, so much so that Rotract Club Himalyan, a not-for-profit city-based organisation that works for social causes, has been organising ‘Salsa Slams’ for six years now. “It is a great way to create awareness for a social cause while learning something new,” said Bhavesh Dhaundial, the president of the club, which would be donating the money collected from the workshop to an NGO working with acid attack victims.

Arpan Gupta, the club’s public relations officer, said, “We sold around 400 passes.”

Students Ankit Kathuria and Arshdeep Kaur love to dance, and wish more events such as ‘Salsa Slam’ could be organised. “Such workshops help us learn an international dance form while giving an opportunity to meet new people,” said Ankit.