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Dancing queen: 23-year-old Nidhi Achha wins International Tutting dance battle
However, she has no plans on becoming a full time dancer and believes that you have to do many things in life to be good at what you are passionate about.
Nidhi Achha, is a dancer from Kurla, Mumbai and she won the Geometric Lady’s Tutt 2 Competition. It is an international dance battle that saw women tutting dancers compete from US, China, Russia, Britian and South Asian countries as well. She as the only Indian to participate in this dance battle.
Tutting is street dance style that originated from popping. It involves creating geometrical shape and 90 degree angles with your hands and fingers. It also includes poses seen in Egypt art and is a play on the name of the child pharaoh King Tut.
“There were two rounds in the final battle and three judges. During the last round, the results were very cut to cut and just a matter of few points. I was travelling home in the metro when the results were announced and there was so much of tension. I was stuck doing the math and I wasn’t even sure I had even won till they had officially announced it,” says Achha.
Achha says while she knows many amazing women in the dance community, one of the reasons we don’t see a lot of female tutting dancers is because people are still conservative. “We perform in gardens and other open spaces and, sometime in studios. The dance battles also go on till late at night and having a deadline creates a lot of pressure on a girl that they end up giving it up.”
Ask her if her family is supportive of her dancing, especially in such a male dominated field, she says yes, absolutely. “My mother has always been supportive. She was the on that got me started in dance by enrolling me into the classes. And my father is my biggest supporter. This went on for three week and I had to constantly record videos of my dances. He used to come back, late at night and help me shoot. He never said he was tired if I messed up and had to do another take. In fact, he would critique my performance and tell me where I could do better.”
The 23-year-old dancer has no plans on becoming a full time dancer. She believes that you have to do many things in life to be good at what you are passionate about. Along with juggling four dance crews, she is a full-time social media manager and also volunteers with a NGO where youngsters spend time with folks at old-age homes, orphanages and homeless shelters. “Handling it all is a struggle but the struggle is good,” she says.
However, she does believe now there are many opportunities for dancers and dancing can be a stable career. “Street dancing has grown a lot over the years and it is still growing. There are opportunities and a lot of big brands are choosing to go with real authentic dancers for their ads. People are choosing the right person for the right roles.”
Ask her if tutting can actually become mainstream like say Bollywood dances or classical and she says, “There are so many people in India who do tutting. They would also love to train other people in the style as well. If it [tutting] is shown in the right place, at the right time, in the right life, I think many people will love to learn more about this dance style.”
