11-year-old whose dance moves stole the show

As the second group of students began dancing to catchy a Punjabi number, Gagandeep Singh got up from among the audience and started doing his own Bhangra as a few teachers glared at him.

Tiny tots dressed in traditional Indian attire welcomed her and students gifted her paintings they had made. But what caught the attention of US First Lady Melania Trump during her visit to a Delhi government school on Tuesday was a Bhangra performance by a 11-year-old Sikh student in the audience as other students danced on stage.

First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump during an interaction with students of Sarvodaya Co-Educational Senior Secondary School during a visit to a Delhi Government School. (Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

Students of Sarvodaya Co-ed Senior Secondary School in Moti Bagh sat quietly on the school grounds as students from other government schools performed for the American first lady. The first performance was the popular Rajasthani song “padharo maro des” (come to my country) to which the students cheered, waving the US and Indian flags.

As the second group of students began dancing to catchy a Punjabi number, Gagandeep Singh got up from among the audience and started doing his own Bhangra as a few teachers glared at him. As Gagandeep, a student of class 6, danced without inhibitions, Melania spotted him and encouraged him by clapping to the beats. The school principal followed suit and soon a dozen students got up from their rows and started dancing to the song.

By the end of the event, Gagandeep was a star and Melania called him aside. “She told me ‘you danced very well’,” he said, while his friends teased him about getting a US green card.

When asked what prompted him to get up and dance, he said, “Dhol sunke mood ban gaya (I could not resist the beats).I felt like dancing so I danced.”