Latin Dance India, a dance company opened its doors

A dance studio, a film star and competitors in world salsa championship, the evening certainly promised oodles of glamour and sensuous moves. Latin Dance India, a dance company, established by Sai and Kirthi, opened its doors to wannabe dancers at Koramangala. Sai and Kirthi are well-known dance performers and instructors from the City, working together for the last 3 years and are trained dancers in Salsa, Bachata, Merengue, Cha-cha and Hip-Hop. They are the first Indian duo to compete at the World Salsa Championships 2007, held in Orlando, USA.

Sai is a trained gymnast while Kirthi is a Master Teachers certificate holder from Sydney. They have travelled to the UK, Australia, China, Korea, Hong Kong and Bangkok, competing and performing, representing India at international salsa festivals Adding to the glam quotient was actor Puneet Rajkumar, who was also the chief guest at the event. After the ribbon cutting ceremony, the actor interacted with the audience and said, I am not such a good dancer, but I would love to learn from Sai and Kirthi, whose video I have watched. Sai and Kirthi then gave a breathtaking demo of professional salsa, amazing the audience with Kirthi's nimble twirls and Sai's acrobatic moves, perfectly synchronising with the latin music. Kirthi, the co-owner of the studio, says: Couple dance styles currently in vogue like Salsa, Bachata, Jive are offered here. We also offer contemporary and trendy dance styles like B-Boy, Hip Hop, Belly dancing and Bollywood, western classical dance styles like: ballet and jazz and fitness programmes like aerobics, callanetics (ballet based stretching exercises) and yoga. We are also a professional dance troupe and offer live performances and productions for corporate events and have been doing so for the past three years.

As a parting treat, Puneet Rajkumar, after much cajoling by the audience plucked some courage and tried some Jive moves with Kirthi. But it was obvious that he'd much rather stick to talking about his films. I am right now just looking forward to my next release Raaj, other than that I am very contented with the work I am doing.