A stylized hand gesture transitions into an undulating hip roll, followed by a foot stomping step dance.
Apra Bhandari counts out one-two and one-two-three beats for the women in her dance class. Together they flow and spin to the infectious song “O Re Piya” from the movie “Aaja Nachle.”
Some in her Bollywood dance class are learning in-person – the Adaa Indian and Bollywood Dance Academy recently reopened for in-person lessons and workouts for the first time since March – and others follow online from home.
After being put through their paces by Bhandari, several class members recently talked about the appeal.
For Ambica Bhandari of Mission Viejo, it is the roots in the music she grew up with.
For Reah Mehta, 16, a junior at Northwood High, it is “a way to get in touch with my culture.”
When she tells fellow Northwood students that she is a Bollywood dancer, “They say, ‘Oh, my God, show me something.’”
Although Mehta, who has been a student of Bhandari for nine years, doesn’t break into spontaneous dances, she did organize and choreograph a dance for about 20 classmates for the high school talent show.
Although Bhandari says classical Indian folk dancing is the foundation, from there Bollywood dancing branches into myriad styles and forms. Bhandari, who is the owner and artistic director of the Adaa Dance Academy, which teaches classical Indian, Bollywood, hip-hop and jazz dance, says one of the current hot trends is collaboration between Bollywood and hip-hop artists.
Popularized by movies produced by India’s prolific film industry of the same name, Bollywood dances can range from wild, spinning joy rides, to tender intimate duets.
Beginning with their first golden age in the 1940s – they are enjoying a more recent surge in popularity as they’ve been introduced into mainstream Hollywood – Bollywood films have been sprawling three-hour plus extravaganzas. Happily-ever-after love stories with healthy doses of drama, melodrama and comedy.
And music and dancing: lots of music and dancing.
Bhandari says the music and dancing are not just show pieces, but just as often plot drivers and integral to the narrative. And these dance scenes can be massive, putting the Ziegfeld Follies and Busby Berkeley to shame. They can literally have casts of thousands.
Like its namesake, Bollywood dancing continues to grow and cross all kinds of boundaries while remaining wholly Indian.
“It keeps Indian dance as it’s base,” Bhandari said. “It’s not a mishmash, it’s the most perfect mixture.”
Ask what defines Bollywood dancing and an answer might be difficult. Is it the hand and arm movements? The vibrant costuming? The usually large, sometimes massive ensembles? Well, it’s all that.
Bhandari falls back on words such as “universal.” And, it’s the accessibility of Bollywood dancing that is stretching the movement beyond the Asian Indian community.
Bhandari has been dancing from the age of 3, first learning the classical Kathak style, which formed the foundation for her later career.
The family moved from India to New York, and soon Bhandari and her father were hitting the competitive traditional dance circuit. She was also involved in the Indian pageant scene, winning Miss India New York in 1998, three weeks before she enrolled in Cornell University.
In school, dance was Bhandari’s refuge from the pressure of academics and school life.
“There were many days I closed the door and just danced for 15 or 30 minutes. Instead of a crying session, I’d have a dance session and get back into the right mindset,” she said. “Dance has been a huge part of my life.”
And it still is. After posting her first sign-up sheet at the Irvine Hindu Mandir, or temple, she began teaching one, then two students in her living room – only growing from there.
Bhandari’s academy began sweeping up awards by the armful after she started entering teams in Indian dance competitions in 2015. And the studio has been a frequent participant in cultural festivals throughout the region.
Bhandari’s classes have grown to 300 students, enough to support her own studio. The doors opened in February, only to be closed in less than a month by the pandemic.
Zoom classes have sustained the academy, but Bhandari is eager for more face-to-face interactions.
Because there is something else at play for Bhandari and her dancers.
“We’re a family,” she said.
