Out & About October 2017

OA feature

Hooray for Bollywood

After working as a professional dancer in Bollywood, Surendra Singh wants to share his love of Bhangra dancing. CHARLOTTE BOOTH went to one of his workshops to find out more T here is a twinkle in Surendra Singh’s eyes and he radiates joy as he finishes his routine to the popular track Jai Ho ( Slumdog Millionaire ) composed by A.R. Rahman, at a workshop performance at

Surendra explains: “We were a middle-class family and it was very difficult for him to provide everything he wanted for his children. “We didn’t get very good qualifications, with no private classes. We all went to a small school, but after school all I wanted to do was dance. “I always used to take part in local festivals, but my family did not want me to dance. They were from Punjab and never wanted me to dance. As a man they wanted me to do something like mechanics, or some other manly work, but I hated that. “All the people in the village would call me when there was a festival and looked forward to seeing me dance on the stage. “At every celebration people would chuck money at me. The whole crowd would watch and chuck money. They appreciated me, and when I was about 15 I earned enough money to buy a colour television for my family. We only had a black and white TV before that.” When he was 18 or 19, his brother-in-law, who worked as an editor in the Bollywood film industry, suggested he went for an audition for the Senior Dance Association, in Santacruz, Mumbai. “I went for the audition. I was about 18 or 19 years old. I was very, very young. “Bollywood was so popular the queue was so long. And when I saw the audition judges, who were film directors and choreographers, I was nervous. But I danced lots of choreographies and they asked me to dance Bhangra so I did that too. “All the best choreographers came and chose the best dancers. They asked if the dancers could dance classical, Bhangra dance or Western dance.” Surendra got through the audition with flying colours and joined the Senior Dance Association, Mumbai, which paved his way into movies. However, his father couldn’t afford the membership fee to the association so his brother-in-law offered to pay it for him. “I paid him back in only a few months as I got so many shoots it was easy.” “I spent 10 years working with them [the association] and still have a membership. I am catching up with people on Facebook and hopefully Amin Khan will contact 

the Audley Inglewood Retirement home. It is clear as soon as you look at him, that Surendra’s passion is dancing. Despite his simple costume of black jeans, trainers and waist coat he carries himself as a dancer, a star to be looked at. Born in Mumbai, India, Surendra has lived in England since 2006 and has decided that now is the right time to rekindle his Bollywood dancing career. In India, Surendra worked with some of the greatest Bollywood directors such as Amin Khan and rubbed shoulders with Bollywood glitterati like Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Amitabh Buchan, Shilpa Shetty and Aishwayra Rai. Surendra was a professional dancer, and can be seen in the colourful dance routines in more than 40 Bollywood films including 36 China Town (2006) directed by Mustan Burmawalla and Abbas Burmawalla, Mujhse Dosti Karoge (2002) directed by Kunal Kohli and Bride and Prejudice (2004), based on Jane Austen’s literary classic Pride and Prejudice and directed by Gurinder Chadha. He was a part of this movie world for 10 years, but his dance passion went back to his childhood. Surendra has always danced and, as a child, he learned routines from movies on TV or from listening to the radio. “We had a tiny home and I was always dancing. “I watched a lot of folk dance, classical dance, Western and disco, which was popular at that time, to try to learn different kinds of dance. “I liked to watch hip hop and break dance and then to do the routines. I was so crazy about dance. I was younger than 12. “I learned so many different varieties from Bollywood movies – you have Gujarati, stick dance, Kathak. So many things I would practise. If I open classes I can show all of these dances.” His family was large with four siblings and his father was a taxi driver.

Pictures: Phil Cannings and Charlotte Booth

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