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 Just Jhoom! – April 2010Following the success of 'Slumdog Millionaire', Bollywood dance classes have leapt up the popularity stakes. Drawing on a range of dance styles from classical Indian to salsa with dashes of hip-hop, jive and jazz, Bollywood is energetic, sexy, very tongue in cheek - and a great way to get fit! Now dancercise just got a 'Bollywood makeover' with the advent of Just Jhoom! a new fitness craze that's set to sweep across the nation. Just Jhoom! which translates to 'Just Dance!' exploded onto the fitness scene on 27th May 2010 with a simultaneous launch in a number of locations in South-East England. The new Just Jhoom! team aims to get the nation on its feet with classes taking place simultaneously in a crazy variety of venues including shops, restaurants, offices, gyms and - in Guildford - on ice! Those at work will be able to log onto the Just Jhoom! website, www.justjhoom.co.uk, and dance along with the video! A number of celebrity dancers have already expressed interest in taking part! Based on Bollywood dance moves, Just Jhoom! increases cardiovascular fitness with lively routines set to fast-paced Indian music and the warm up and cool down routines take their inspiration from yoga and pilates. Shalini Bhalla, founder of the Just Jhoom! movement is excited about the scale of the launch. "We want to get the nation dancing on May 27th - and within two years aim to have a Just Jhoom! class in every major town and city in the country. This will mean providing venues for those who want to learn how to Just Jhoom! and providing first class training and support for qualified fitness, dance and exercise to music instructors interested in teaching Just Jhoom!" Saffire Dance Company – January 2010An exciting, new, contemporary Indian dance company, formed by a group of enthusiastic Bollywood dance students who meet regularly at Cranleigh Arts Centre is to be launched in the New Year. The main aim of Saffire Dance is to provide women in the local community with the opportunity to improve their dance skills and to gain performance experience at a variety of local events. Open to all women, regardless of age or experience, Saffire Dance also provides an outlet for creativity, a means of improving levels of fitness and flexibility and the possibility of raising funds for the benefit of local charities through public performance. For more information about joining please call SB Dance on 01483 271059 or email shalinibhalla@btinternet.com Naach Youth Dance Company - January 2010SB Dance has successfully bid for funding to set up a Youth Dance Company specialising in Indian Dance in Cranleigh. Funding was received for a 10-week pilot project from Hampshire Dance and Youth Dance England through the South East Youth Dance Network. The company will be for young people aged 11 – 18 and will teach performance skills and healthy dance practice through yoga as well as creatively with Bharatanatyam (Indian classical dance). Members will meet once a week at Cranleigh Arts Centre from January 2010 working towards a performance in March 2010. The sessions will be led by SB Dance’s professional dancer Sarra Whicheloe with guest teachers inputting on styles like Bhangra, Bollywood and Kathak as well as hip-hop and street dance. No previous dance experience will be necessary, but company members will need to show enthusiasm and commitment to learning the dance style, creating work and performing at local events. There will also be the opportunity for them to contribute towards the running of the company itself. “I am delighted that we have received this funding which enables us to provide free dance workshops to young people in the area. This is an excellent opportunity for young people to have a say in how they want the company to run and have an input into the creative direction of the work produced – a really exciting development for dance provision in Cranleigh!” - Shalini Bhalla, Artistic Director of SB Dance
For more information visit hampshiredance.org.uk/news.php?id=101 Just Jhoom! – October 2009SB Dance is currently working on Just Jhoom! a new, fun and dynamic fitness programme which uses vibrant and infectious Indian rhythms together with Bollywood/Indian dance moves, Exercise to Music principles and Yoga stretches. At present we are piloting the scheme in the South East and are looking to move further afield. If you are a dance or aerobics instructor looking for some new choreography, or someone looking to change careers, give us a call as we can provide you with the training that enables you to start your own Just Jhoom! classes. Keep in touch and in the know! – June 2009With so many events and new classes happening this year, we thought the best way to keep you informed was through the various social networking sites. We have been on Facebook now for over a year, but we are pleased to announce that you can now view our event video clips on YouTube. Also, an easy and quick way to keep in touch is to follow us on Twitter. Just click and become part of the SBDanceUK family! Who's Who of Britain's Business Elite – February 2009Cranleigh-based dancer Shalini Bhalla has been selected for inclusion in the 2009 Young Business Leaders edition of Who’s Who of Britain’s Business Elite published this February. She has been selected for inclusion in this edition on the basis of her business achievements with Create (Arts) Ltd. Only the top 2% of directors in the UK aged 35 or under are eligible for inclusion in this title. Shalini has been conducting dance workshops for Create for the past three years and has been on their board for the past one year. asmâkam - the quest released on CD – November 2008
“Eleanore Duggan provides a beautiful soundscore of intermingled western and Indian music, and, in one scene, haunting vocals.” Jackie Fletcher, British Theatre Guide, August 2008 SB Dance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival – August 2008SB Dance has just returned from a very successful trip to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where they showcased asmâkam – the quest for seven nights. As well as performing at the venue – Quincentenary Hall, Royal College of Surgeons, the dancers also did High Street Performances and danced in the John Lewis shop window! SB Dance also offered Bollywood and Dandia dance workshops for people of all ages for the whole week. Although the company were only there for a week, they managed to get 2 fantastic reviews – one for the show, and one for the workshops: The British Theatre Guidecopied from britishtheatreguide.info/otherresources/fringe/fringe08-45.htm#Q rating: 4.5 stars (between "well worth seeing" and "kill for a ticket") How can you reconcile two entirely opposing parts of your identity? This is the quandary with which many young Asians are faced when brought up in a Western country. As Shalini Bhalla explains, Indian at home, English at school, the crunch comes when adolescence ends and as an adult you are faced with difficult choices. Parents expect you to marry a good Indian boy, but the English part of you longs for independence and a career. In an interdisciplinary production embracing Bharata Natyam (Indian classical dance), Bollywood dance and Western contemporary dance, two dancers express the complexity of an Asian/English identity in the 21st century. Shalini Bhalla and Payal Ahuja have both trained from infancy in classical Indian dance forms. They are a remarkably talented duo. Eleanore Duggan provides a beautiful soundscore of intermingled western and Indian music, and, in one scene, haunting vocals. Inspired by a novel, Amulya Malladi's The Mango Tree, Shalini Bhalla recognised that her own experiences were shared by many Asian women and decided it was time to tell her own story through the medium of dance. The spoken text has none of the vocal tricks of trained actors, so that her words maintain an engagingly honest tone. The dancing is superb. Jackie Fletcher, August 2008 ThreeWeekscopied from edinburgh.threeweeks.co.uk/review/5006 tw rating: 4/5 ("Very good") The word workshop makes me think of sitting around a table making stuff, so stupidly I turned up to this event in a mini-skirt and with an acute hangover. If you cannot already guess by the name Bollywood, the hour was anything but sedentary. My feelings of nausea soon passed after the energetic warm-up, as we were taken step by step through our first Bollywood dance under the excellent instruction of Shalini Bhalla. As well as demonstrating how to do each move Shalini explained the symbolism of the action, how every gesture tells part of a story. It was an hour of (tiring!) fun that taught me a great deal about Bollywood and the beauty and complexity of Indian dance. Grace Murray, August 2008 Board Member for two dynamic and exciting companies - May 2008Shalini Bhalla has recently been voted onto the boards of two young, dynamic companies in the arts world. Create (Arts) Ltd uses the creative arts to work with the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people in our society. By giving people of all ages access to creative arts, Create aims to help transform lives. Create stands for “access, innovation, excellence and passion” and by working with leading professional artists they are able to deliver high quality workshops across all artforms. For more on Create’s work and forthcoming projects please visit www.createarts.org.uk StopGAP Dance Company is a professional dance company which has dancers with and without disabilities, touring nationally and internationally. By using the dancers’ physical and intellectual potential as starting points to create new work, StopGAP’s work is entertaining and accessible and confronts our notions of what disability is. For more on their work and where and when you can see their next performance please visit www.stopgap.uk.com SandScript – The Colours of Diwali wins Award! - March 2008SB Dance recently worked in collaboration with WhirlyGigArts on a project which has received a prestigious Drawing Inspiration Award. The event that has been singled out for this award is SandScript – the Colours of Diwali which was held at the Cranleigh Arts Centre last autumn as part of The Big Draw 2007 and was funded by Awards for All Scheme from The National Lottery. Last October, 1350 events took place in 1200 venues across the UK. Out of all these Big Draw programmes, SandScript – The Colours of Diwali was awarded a Highly Commended Award. As part of the event, Cranleigh’s local residents contributed to the making of a rangoli installation. Over 200 adults and children aged 7+ were given their own 1ftx1ft board to create their own mini rangoli. They used coloured sand, lentils, and rice to create these. These were then put together to create one big rangoli which in the end measured 26ft by 8ft. Around 75 children under 6 made their own individual rangolis to display on the walls as part of the exhibition. The Drawing Inspiration Award was presented in London at a ceremony hosted by the Royal Academy of Engineering at The Royal Society on 12 March 2008, where we received a commemorative certificate drawn by leading illustrator and Campaign patron Quentin Blake. The event is illustrated in the Campaign’s new book, which will be sent to thousands of museums, galleries, heritage sites, schools and community spaces as inspiration for the 2008 Big Draw. The Big Draw sweeps the UK each October with a drawing bonanza, involving an estimated 350,000 people in exhilarating, and often unconventional, creative activities. Children, parents, grandparents, conservationists, designers, artists, cartoonists and scientists meet in venues ranging from castles to shopping centres, national galleries to village halls, libraries to hospitals, universities to nature reserves – to draw with charcoal, paint, mud, even skateboards and robots!
For information about bringing SandScript or Rangoli workshops to your school or venue please call SB Dance on 01483 271059 |
Following a successful stint at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the music to asmâkam – the quest is being released by Eleanore Duggan – the composer of the music. To buy a CD please 