The Chennai-based dance education centre, The Dancers Club in Alwarpet had our attention when they performed at the 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad’s opening ceremony at the Nehru Indoor Stadium. They shared the stage with singer Dhee and folk artiste Kidakuzhi Mariammal, offering a mesmerising performance of the super hit indie Tamil song Enjoy Enjaami.
The Dancers Club is a learning facility founded in 2021 by dancers and choreographers Arnold Charles and Suren Rajendran to instruct aspiring artistes in interdisciplinary movement and performance modalities.
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At the Chess Olympiad, they staged a brilliant performance with a theme based on the song’s line Vaango Vaango Onnagi (let us all come together), which was a musical and movement-focused interpretation of the coming together of players from 187 different nations for the tournament. “There were over 90 performers, a global technical team that used 3-D projection mapping to immerse the audience in the layers of the performance, and the show’s lead singers, Dhee and Mariammal, to bring the musical and visual spectacle to life,” says Arnold, who agrees that the first breakthrough for The Dancers Club was the choreography for the music video of the song Enjoy Enjaami, last year.
Other works by the troupe include projects like AR Rahman’s independent track Moopilla Thamizh Thaaye; Yuvan Shankar Raja and singer Dhvani Bhanushali’s Candy; and Nizhal Tharum Idham (a segment of Amazon Prime Video’s Tamil anthology series Putham Pudhu Kaalai Vidiyaadha).
The project that the team enjoyed the most was when they worked with MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and the other Chennai Super Kings players for a Myntra and CSK collaboration. “It was fun and very close to our hearts. Also, we also collaborated with Netflix for Money Heist’s promotion video,” Arnold says.
Arnold concludes by sharing that the group will soon work on a tribute for the late legendary singer SP Balasubrahmanyam, which will be released soon.