When Renu Kansal opened Bollywood West dance studio three years ago, the “slumdog” was not yet a millionaire, but Indian beats and melodies had already begun to seep into the American mainstream via Jay-Z’s “Beware of the Boys,” Britney Spears’ “Me Against the Music” and The Black Eyed Peas’ “Don’t Phunk with My Heart,” which featured samples of two 1970s Bollywood songs.
Now, even the Disney Channel’s Cheetah Girls are going to India, and Kansal teaches Indian fusion dance classes four nights a week in Denver and Boulder.
With a French-Canadian-German mother and an Indian father, an interest in dance that took her through ballet studios, hip-hop clubs and traditional bharatanatyam lessons, Kansal embodies the rhythms that pulse back and forth across India, the U.K. and the U.S.
But it wasn’t until she visited India and discovered Bollywood movies that the years of dance training and her multicultural upbringing coalesced. After three years with Bollywood Axion, a dance company and school in New York City, Kansal moved to Denver and founded Bollywood West in 2006.
The dance number at the end of “Slumdog Millionaire” pays homage to the Mumbai-based industry that churns out happy, glittery musicals. Kansal, 33, uses music from the “Slumdog” soundtrack in her bhangra and Bollywood classes.
Bhangra is a folk dance from the Punjab region of northwest India that has taken on hip- hop elements as it spreads through the Northern and Western hemispheres. Like the musical movie numbers, Kansal’s Bollywood classes fuse classical Indian dance with jazz, hip-hop and modern styles.
A recent Bollywood class starts with “Paper Planes,” by the Sri Lankan-British singer M.I.A. As the distinctive “ching-ching-ching” refrain pulses from the dance studio speakers, Kansal leads the students in warm-ups designed to give Western ears (and bodies) a feel for the beat.
Because she builds on each week’s choreography, Kansal prefers that students buy four-week blocks. An enthusiastic but unskilled student (that would be me) will find the movements becoming more familiar by the second class.
“I want it to be more fun than a step-aerobics class,” says Kansal, who estimates her classes are split between South Asians and non-Asian people who are interested in the culture or just looking for a new workout. “It’s really about charisma, which everybody’s got.”
Easy for her to say, with her delicate feet and flexible hips, but if she can see this uncoordinated-looking group’s charisma, well, let’s dance!
This dance style requires isolating muscle groups in ways Westerners are not used to. Kansal explains the lift-lift of the shoulder blades challenging our class: “Use your back fat muscle. You know, the bra one.”
If you’ve done yoga or ballet, some of the moves will feel familiar. If you’re more of a club kid, you’ll still recognize some of the steps. And like all those dance styles, some of these movements feel natural, others, impossible. Think pat-your-head-rub- your-stomach coordination.
“Pulling down the roof”
Kansal is good at offering insight into the Eastern traditions in Western terms. With arms lifted, palms up, she shows where to put the emphasis: “It’s the opposite of raising the roof. It’s pulling it down.” You can feel the collective “aha” as our arms fall into sync.
Now, we put the top with the bottom. “Use your pelvis to draw a box: front-right-back- left,” says Kansal, at once formal and funky. “Now just make a circle, kinda like a washing machine.”
By the end of the one-hour class, we’re feeling a little Beyonce-Bombay and ready for the “Punjabi walk-it-out.”
With a tilt of her chin, the petite Kansal takes on big attitude. “This is like, ‘Gimme some room.’ This is gonna be your big finish. You can be as fierce and aggressive as you want. You can even get a little hip-hop.”
Both bhangra and Bollywood classes involve a lot of bouncing and work the large muscles, especially the quads. Students generally wear workout clothes and athletic or dance shoes — going barefoot may look authentic, but it’s hard on the soles (and you might step on your own, or someone else’s, toe, take my word for it).
Tina Striegl, an accountant by day and belly dancer by night, started bhangra classes about a year and a half ago, and has since lost 90 pounds. “Bhangra and Bollywood will take it off,” she says between classes. Now a member of the Bollywood West performance troupe, Striegl, a diabetic, credits dancing for keeping her blood sugar normal.
Pinder Gill and five non-Indian friends are taking a bhangra class for the next four weeks in anticipation of Gill’s July wedding. “I’m Punjabi, but I needed to refresh my memory — I’ve been living in Denver for so long. I wanted to integrate both sides so they’re not just sitting there at the reception looking at each other,” says Gill, who found the class online. She hopes to surprise her Indian guests and her parents with a bhangra routine. “It was a good workout, and I thought she did a really job of teaching the technique.”
Gill’s friend Quinn Filla, dressed in shorts and a purple tie-dyed Grateful Dead T-shirt, mopped his head and nodded in agreement after huffing through the one-hour class.
“I don’t know if we will be able to do this in saris,” says another friend, Katie Keltie.
But Gill’s confidence has returned: “Oh yes we will.” She plans to return the following week with more friends, which is just what Kansal hopes for.
“A lot of people come in groups for a social aspect, it’s really turned more into a cultural umbrella because we have such a diverse student body,” says Kansal.
To give her students a place to show off their moves, Kansal created “Passport to Bollywood” parties at Denver nightclubs (the next is June 26 at Vinyl). “They are culturally authentic, young, energetic and the only place you can hear bhangra and Bollywood music in a nightclub,” she says. “A song comes on, and everybody breaks into dance — it’s our own little Bollywood in that sense. You see the points of confluence between bhangra and American styles of dance. We have that to pass on to our kids, whether you’re South Asian or not.”
Kristen Browning-Blas: 303-954-1440 or kbrowning@denverpost.com
Hear the music
DJ AshishB hosts “Beats From The East” noon-2 p.m. Saturdays on Radio 1190-AM; beatsfromthe
Take a class
Renu Kansal offers bhangra and Bollywood classes Monday and Tuesday in Denver, Wednesday in Boulder. A block of four classes is $50, plus a $10 registration fee. Schedules and info: bollywoodwest , 303-389-9832.
See a movie
Sudhir Pawar programs Bollywood movies at Denver theaters. Check the schedule at geetsangeet , 303-543-1334.
Join the dance
“Passport to Bollywood,” 9 p.m. June 26, free dance lessons, give-aways of Indo-Western designer clothing and jewelry, dance-class packages and dinner for two at Little India. At Vinyl, Broadway between 10th and 11th avenues; .
Kristen Browning-Blas
