Grace Beyond Borders: How Small-Town India Is Redefining the Rhythm of Dance : Parag Biswas

Gone are the days, when dancers drew stares from people, male dancers were ridiculed, and  dancing was the preserve of talents residing in and around the bigger cities of India. Uday  Shankar, Birju Maharaj, Mallika Sarabhai, Rukmini Devi Arundale, Prabhu Deva, Mithun  Chakraborty, Shaimak Davar, Jaaved Jaaferi, Farah Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Hrithik Roshan and  Allu Arjun benefitted from the opportunities they got at a nascent stage by being city dwellers. 

But the story now is quite different. Several youngsters from nondescript towns and villages,  including young boys, have made their mark in the wider arena of dancing and have even  entered the Guinness Book of World Records.  

Take the case of Jyoti Mondal of Birpara - a tiny place in the Alipurduar subdivision of  the Alipuduar district in West Bengal, situated near the Indo-Bhutan border.  

This 30-year-old dancer, who has been pursuing Kathak since childhood, has recently entered  the Guinness Book of World Records by creating a new record of the most Kathak dance spins  in 30 seconds. He has achieved an incredible 68 spins in 30 seconds, which has stunned veteran  dancers across the globe.  

Jyoti, now a dance teacher himself and the owner of the Devjyoti Dance Company in Birpara,  started taking formal training in dancing from the age of 14. His first coach was Sangita Chaki  of Siliguri and he later trained under Souvik Chakraborty of Kolkata and Sanjukta Sinha of  Ahmedabad. 

Mondal, who is the only child of Late Narayan Mondal, a businessman, and Bina Mondal, a  housewife, dedicated his incredible feat to his first dance teacher, Sangita Chaki. “I am  immensely indebted to Sangita Di for this world record and all my previous achievements. She  has not only trained me for free but also provided me free food and lodging during my stay at  her Collegepara residence in Siliguri for training under her,” said Jyoti with tears in his eyes.  

The final year student of the post graduate department of Sociology in the Swami Vivekananda  Subharti University in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh said that male dancers nowadays perhaps did not  face as much of stigma as their predecessors had to endure, but they were still the butt of  ridicule. “Classical dance has no doubt been traditionally associated with femininity and women.  But people don’t understand that men also have the right to dance and show the world how they  too can be graceful and still be a man.  

It is a pity that whenever male dancers get on stage to do their classical pieces they are  humiliated and ridiculed to no end. I had to confront a lot of ridicule and humiliation  everywhere and had it not been for the help and support of Sangita Di, I wouldn’t have been  able to pursue my dream of becoming a renowned dancer,” he said. 

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Another student of Sangita Chaki, Animikha De, who was selected by the Eastern Zonal  Cultural Centre (EZCC) and North Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre (NEZCC), Ministry of  Culture, Government of India to represent India as a dancer at the Bureau International des  Expositions-organized World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, attributed her success to “Sangita  Di.” “I have been training under Didi since I was three years old. She has always been very  caring and supportive.  

I am also very grateful to Vidushi Madhumita Roy, under whom I am receiving advanced  training for the past five years as well as my father Biswajit De, who is an assistant engineer at  the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority and my mother Barnali De – a former TV  presenter,” she said. 

The 26-year-old dancer, who has done her Masters in Dance from the Rabindra Bharati  University in Kolkata with specialization in Kathak, felt that north Bengal, especially Siliguri,  was fast becoming the Mecca of dancing in eastern India. “There was a time when Kolkata was  the cultural centre of West Bengal. But the focus has now shifted towards north Bengal due to  some incredible achievements by the dancers of our region at the national and international  levels over the past few years.  

There is plenty of talent here and in many other lesser known places of our country. The need of  the hour is to groom them and support them properly,” said the Collegepara resident, who  enthralled the audiences in Osaka with her immaculate and mesmerizing performances for six  successive days, including a special performance for the Gandhi Jayanti Celebrations on  October 2, organized by the Ministry of Culture at the Festival Station Stage.  

Santu Paul, the father of nine-year-old Sukriti Paul of Hyderpara in Siliguri, who was adjudged  winner in the under-14 category of the Sony TV organized dance competition, “Super Dance  Chapter 5,” for a standout collaborative performance along with Aadhyayasree Upadhyay of  Assam by judges Geeta Kapur, Shilpa Shetty and Marzi Pestonji on October 12, shared  Animikha’s sentiments. He felt that family support was crucial for success in the field of dancing  in small towns like Siliguri.  

“It is a pity that many children like my daughter, who love dancing a lot, do not get the support  and encouragement necessary for achieving success in this field of art from small towns like  Siliguri. My wife, Shukla Paul, a housewife, and I spend a lot of time on training my daughter on  gymnastics every day. We ensure that she never misses any dancing class and always remains  focused on her goal,” said the 37-year-old teacher at the GSFP Primary School in the  Subhashpally area of Siliguri, who attributed Sukriti’s success also to the “able guidance” she  received from Ashik Sarkar, Kaushik Chaudhury and Aman Parwana, who trained her on  classical, breaking and hip-hop dance forms respectively.  

Sangita Chaki, who mentored both Jyoti and Animikha, agreed with Paul. She appealed to the  state governments of different states in the country as well as the central government to ensure  that small town talents should also get the same facilities, opportunities and platforms that  aspiring dancers get in big cities.

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“There is no dearth of talent in the small and remote towns and villages of India. The aspiring  dancers there also get top class coaching from their mentors and a lot of support from their  teachers, trainers, parents and guardians. But they have to face a lot of bias and neglect, when  they go out to big cities to perform or compete in a contest before a predominantly urban crowd.  The governments in our country should come forward to remove this place-based stigma and  ensure that no talented artist or player is discriminated against only on the basis of his or her  place of birth or origin,” the ace dancer emphasized

About the author :

A national and international award-winning teacher, journalist, anchor, quizmaster, TV, web & Akashvani commentator and sports expert, educational trainer, motivational speaker, TV, web and film actor and filmmaker and social activist.

E.O.M 

PARAG BISWAS’ MAIL ID: paragbiswas1972@gmail.com