Dance is a field that has never ending learning and every dancer (even teachers) needs to update himself all the time about the newer techniques and nuances of dancing.
Normally for my update courses I prefer to go to Europe, as that is the place where Latin and Ballroom dancing originated, but recently I made a different choice. I chose to go to DanceSport Va, America.
The director of the largest school in America, Ms Betty Lu, is one person I met there. She is a Chinese American, who is known for her perfection in dance studio managements, has trained world champions and introduced dance changes to dance enthusiasts in the country. Meeting Ms Lu was like meeting Lord Buddha; he gave up his royalty for a simple life. Similarly Ms Lu sold off her successful chain of restaurants and departmental stores so that she could dance and be close to dance lovers all day long. She even had the vision to promote dance to the people of America. Such love for dance is very rare to see in today’s world.
My 40-day course at her institute few months back made me see dance and dance studio management in different light. She and her team of world famous instructors taught me the new changes and gave me some managements insights that I am surely going to implement in my dance studios in India in the coming years.
Apart from being the director of most famous studio in America, Ms Lu is a champion dancer herself and I was truly delighted when I got a chance to dance with her. I even invited her to India to judge the Mumbai Latin and Ballroom Championship. Honestly I was a bit hesitant to call her because the dance scene in India is very different to what I saw in America. But to my surprise she agreed immediately, only on the condition that I help her experience the history of India.
We Indians should be fortunate that world-renowned people like Ms Lu want to visit our country to experience our culture. She took time out and made a short trip to our country recently, We went around a few cities and the romantic side of
Ms Lu came out when
she fell in love with the wonder of the world: Taj Mahal.
I am writing this piece because after judging the Mumbai Latin & Ballroom Championship she flooded my team and me with compliments about the competition managements and the quality of dancers that she saw on the floor. It just makes me feel that after completing my dance education in Germany and moving to India nine years back, setting up the studio and its branches in the country, finally all my hardwork has paid off.
Getting a compliment for Ms Betty Lu is a pat on the back not only for me but for the entire group of Latin and ballroom dance lovers of India.
I would want to say a big thank you to the prestigious panel of judges: Ms Lu, actress Kitu Gidwani, India’s first Dancing Queen Ms Salomi Roy Kapoor, the petite nibble footed Ballerina Ms Ava Barucha and the world of dancers from India for making this happen for all of us.