Recently, the city folks in Kochi got a rare glimpse into the colourful world of Afro-Latin music during the Kerala Afro-Latin Weekender festival, the first such, held at Avenue Centre in Panampilly Nagar. The three-day festival, organised under the leadership of Sushil Laxman Jagale, a professional Latin and Kizomba dancer, was an opening act to spread awareness about the art form and the practice of social dancing within the Kerala community. He was also ably assisted by Mary Simone and Prasanth Sasidharan, members of the advanced Latin dance group.
“It was after attending Latin dance festivals at Goa and Chennai that it dawned on us that Kerala, too, needed a Latin dance community. Despite the restrictions here, we were able to pull it off,” Prasanth says. For Mary, a Kottayam native and businesswoman, the event was an avenue to explore her passion for dance. “I had been exposed to Latin dance during my trips abroad. I found a good mentor in Sushil to pursue my passion for Latin dance. I realised that there were many like me who shared a similar interest but were unable to explore the dance form due to inconsistency on the part of teachers and students. Not to mention the cost. This motivated me to take an active role as a facilitator of the Kerala Afro-Latin Weekender festival,” she says.
Sushil says their motto was to expand the community of Afro-Latin dancers and encourage people to take up social dance to understand its benefits. The Mumbai native, who has been giving lessons on Bachata and Salsa at a dance studio in Kadavanthra for over a year now, conceptualised the Kerala Afro-Latin Dance Festival as many of his students shared an interest in exploring more Latin and Afro dance styles.
“I train around 20 students of various age groups. We conduct beginners and advanced classes for both Bachata and Salsa four times a week. Learning art forms like bachata, kizomba and salsa made them keen to explore more styles. The turnout for the fest was surprising— 120 people turned up for the three-day event and 40 of them were Malayalis,” Sushil says.
Kizomba basics, salsa partner work, Afro Dance, Brazilian zouk, sensual bachata, mambo footwork, and Dominican bachata were some dance forms that were introduced to participants. Sushil and Mary add that the festival was an eye-opener for the public in Kerala to eliminate misconceptions regarding social dancing.
“People in Kerala generally stray away from such forms of dance as they deem it to be too sensual. We should realise that there are strict measures set in place to avoid harassment and misbehaviour. The dance is merely a space to build chemistry between partners through synchronisation and mutual respect. The aim of dance should be to groove to the rhythm of the music.”
Mary adds that these dance forms are excellent to improve well-being, as they can be considered as a form of simultaneous exercise and meditation. Prasanth says they plan to conduct the festival as an annual fair, except at a much grander scale with the help of sponsors. Sushil adds “This was a trial session. We will circulate and post the videos of the finished sessions on social media. If more people come forward with an interest in social dancing styles, we plan to expand the diversity and frequency of such styles and conduct regular sessions in future.”