Chowdaiah memorial hall in Malleshwaram witnessed dance in different flavors on Saturday, 18 May 2013. From tiny tots to the elderly women, everybody danced with awe-inspiring enthusiasm. Not just the performers that night, but the audience too fired-up the place by swaying to the beats.

All these efforts lionize the Chasse Dance Studio (CDS), Bangalore who explore the realms of dance and promote it as a medium of expression. The main aim of the studio is to explore the poetry of dance.

Still from the dance show Pic: Priyanka Nadgir

They want to engage people of all walks of life to learn dance not as an art form but as a medium to spread joy and happiness. Their motto is that ‘Anybody Can Dance’. The amateur performers danced to jazz, pop, hip-hop and bollywood numbers; while the CDS group performed contemporary numbers. The opening beats of classical music to the contemporary jazz mixed with yogasanas by the CDS left the audience spell-bound!

Saraswati rao, founder and creative director of Chasse Dance Studio looked beyond the horizons of performing arts. A passionate dancer-choreographer and a Chartered accountant, she launched the pioneer-initiative ‘Joy of Dance’ to help raise money for Bal Utsav.

Co-founder Ramesh Balasundaraam with his wife Binu Verma founded Child Empowerment Foundation India (CEFI), a not-for-profit organization. They started with the project Bal Utsav in 2009 in the sprawling gardens of Cubbon Park, says Ramesh. The non-school going kids of the age between 4 and 8 years belonging to slums were taught alphabets and simple mathematics in Bal Utsav. The Bal Utsav project has been operational as a museum school in the Visvesvaraya Industrial & Technological Museum since 2012 and in Cubbon Park. Today there are over 100 students and the museum school works from Tuesday to Friday for five hours per day.

Still from the dance show Pic: Priyanka Nadgir

CDS is also involved with NGOs like Destiny Foundation, an old age home, and Kuteer Kids for the hearing impaired. The Kuteer Kids and the women from destiny Foundation were also star performers of the night. Linda, performer from Destiny Foundation who never danced in her life was thrilled to be part of the show.

Professionals from SAMSUNG, SAPIENT, SUBEX, GINO TYPEC, MU and SIGMA volunteered employees will be trained by the CDS members to perform in the show. CDS is determined to collaborate with many more corporates in future says Sarawati Rao.

Archana, marketing manager for CDS spoke of the struggle CDS put forward over the past six to seven months. The event, nevertheless, was a success.⊕