December 23, 2019
The journey of dancer Kunal Om
Soon, he was travelling across Andalusia watching every possible show and
"asking questions on the art form shamelessly to everybody possibleâ€. "My early
interest was in tap dancing. They come for three weeks and start teaching others
from the fourth week. Flamenco is an umbrella term for a different kind of
highly energised dance, which is performed with folk music from Southern Spain.
"In the world of flamenco, these families are big — much like the Kapoors and
Bachchans in Bollywood, if not more. But then I saw a performance at National
Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), which was an eye-opener,†recalls Kunal.
Kunal (centre sitting) at school, Escuela Carmen De Las Cuvas in Granada, Spain
"Great dancers are great because of their passion,†said the great American
modern dancer Martha Graham.
The journey of dancer Kunal Om, from Mumbai to
Granada in Spain — from Bollywood dance to flamenco — is a story of true passion
for the art form. "Flamenco is a dance form prevalent among the gypsies in
Andalusia in Spain. Soon enough, he was one of the organisers at the festival
and there, he says, he had his preliminary foundation of flamenco.Fulfilling the
dream:But that was just the beginning. But there was no way I could learn it in
India. Not only was I having a language problem, I felt the idea was a disaster.
The journey of dancer Kunal Om, from Mumbai to Granada in Spain — from Bollywood
dance to flamenco — is a story of true passion for the art form. "In fact, in
the film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, the flamenco depiction was more a
Bollywoodisation of the art and several artists feel insulted in Spain,†he adds
with a tone of embarrassment. "Well, my dream is to open a flamenco tablao in
the city, which would be a flamenco school in the day and a performing space by
night,†he says. The fun part of flamenco comes much later but the initial days
are extremely difficult and many people might be bored out of it,†he explains. China instant heating
electric tap Manufacturers "I approached flamenco musically, I followed the
rhythm and things became easier.The journey:The performance, which he cites as a
turning point in his career was a collaboration between the late Kathak
exponent, Pandit Chitresh Das and flamenco star Antonio Hidalgo.
I thought
being a professional dancer for 15 years, it would be easy for me to pick up
flamenco and then after a year, I would come back,†he adds half-jokingly.In
2014, he surrendered all his assets that he had including his car and house, to
leave for Spain and learn from the masters. It will be a good six hours
introduction to the highly disciplined art of flamenco,†he concludes.On April
23, at Clap, Malad (West). But they were very kind and they accepted me warm
heartedly and allowed me to stay with them and learn flamenco,†he says. "The
first few months were extremely difficult.Apart from performing and
collaborating with dancers from other disciplines, the 37-year-old dancer will
be conducting rigourous workshops in the city too. Speaking on the rising
popularity of dance forms like salsa and bachata, he says, "The problem is that
most of the people who come to learn aren’t interested in learning it properly.
"That was my first introduction to flamenco, which I thought was close to tap
dancing. With whatever savings he had, he ended up in the city of Granada to
find himself a master to teach him flamenco. Kunal recently choreographed a
flamenco section for Hrithik Roshan at the IIFA in Madrid. "I was performing
across the country back then, performing live with several troupes,†says Kunal.
He patiently sat with me and explained to me all the brackets of flamenco,†he
says.â€
But that’s when his tabla lessons as a kid came handy. "Banks aren’t
helpful if you want to pursue the arts.Soon Kunal was spending most of his time
either researching on flamenco or sending mails to various flamenco schools and
flamenco artists. But according to him, flamenco hasn’t yet arrived in India.
However, I was so enthralled by the performance that I met Antonio after the
concert and set an appointment to learn more from him. These gypsies had a link
with Rajasthan and often thought to have migrated from here,†he points out a
bit of information, which reassured his faith in himself. He recalls the warmth
he had received from several families back in Spain.
However, he wants to keep
shuttling between Spain and India, to learn, to perform and to disseminate the
knowledge that he has earned. After sending more than 4,000 mails to various
artists, he got a reply from famous flamenco artist, Karen Lugo. "This won’t be
the usual hour-and-a-half light-hearted workshop. Soon he found himself
performing with some of the best in the business, like Bosco-Caesar and Terrence
Lewis. But his real interest was in learning and mastering an art form which
nobody in India was keen to explore.
Later I realised how different the two
forms are. "She introduced me to Roberto Nieddu, the director of Jodhpur
Flamenco & Gypsy Festival,†he recalls. In the month of May, he will be
going to Australia to perform at the Indian Film Festival & Awards of
Australia 2017 (IFFAA 2017) in Sydney, where he’ll be sharing the stage with
several stalwarts from the entertainment industry from India as well as
Pakistan. He was kind enough and we met. "My ancestors were from Jodhpur and
when I learnt this interesting fact, I felt I was on the right track,†Kunal
says. So I had to plunge in whatever way I could,†he says. The origins have
often been traced to Romanian gypsies.Future of flamenco in India:After three
years of rigourous learning and practice, Kunal is still not sure if he has been
able to master the art form. In the early nineties, right after school, Kunal
started training under choreographer Darren Das
Posted by: instantheating at
02:32 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 1006 words, total size 6 kb.
15kb generated in CPU 0.0056, elapsed 0.0342 seconds.
33 queries taking 0.0295 seconds, 48 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
33 queries taking 0.0295 seconds, 48 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
