It was a ‘garba’ with a difference and had an aquatic feel to it.
Around 25 participants danced to the tunes of Bollywood and folk songs in water – yes, you read it right — as they participated in a ‘garba’ held in a swimming pool in Udaipur on Friday evening. The innovative organizers were not just trying to do something out-of-the-box to grab eyeballs but also put up an event that gets etched in the memory of the onlookers. The timing was apt — with Navratri festival round the corner.
Rajesh Sharma, a Udaipur-based choreographer, with his team organized the programme in a city swimming pool. “I wanted to try something different this Navratri. I have heard about swimming pool yoga, dance, and other activities. So, I thought, why not swimming pool garba,” said Sharma.
With the help of his dance academy students and others, they booked a swimming pool. But it was not a cakewalk. At first, they encountered a lot of challenges. The initial problem was to strike coordination in the group so that they are in sync. Everything fell into place after some time.
“We do traditional Gujrati garba that includes a lot of rounds, jumping on music, sitting steps, and fast steps. It was very difficult to perform them in a swimming pool; so we decided to perform just easy steps. Most of the steps included an upper body movement with less running and too much action. Some people were excited and some scared but in the end, we were able to pull it off well and enjoyed it to the hilt,” said Sharma, with excitement and satisfaction writ on his face.
Men and women sporting traditional Gujarati attire and jewellery danced amid of festive aura. The entire spectacle was exhilarating.
Sharma said that he will again organize garba in the swimming pool with more volunteers and dancers.
Some time back, a club in Aligarh had held a yoga where participants jumped into a swimming pool and performed asans.