Commercial theatre actors must dance to a new tune

LAHORE: While choreographed dances at weddings have become a must-do trend, the dances in commercial stage plays and films have yet to adopt new moves.

Even though Lollywood has seen a rapid decline in the number of movies released, commercial stage plays are still quite popular among theatregoers.

A huge number of plays are produced every year, but very few of the dance sequences (which are the plays’ biggest draw) are choreographed.

Critics of commercial theatre mostly object to the vulgar and obscene dances in these plays.

According to Usman Peerzada, “Dance is an integral part of entertainment whether it is plays or films. However, dance without a theme is improper”.

In Pakistan films, the department of choreography remains largely neglected. Pappu Samrat, one of the most in-demand choreographers in Lollywood, believes that dances cannot be removed from films produced in the subcontinent, since they mostly deal with love.

Pappu, who hails from Samrat gharana which has a long dance tradition, has spent almost 26 years in the field, but feels that this department was never given its due share.

“We give our best whenever we are given a chance. If I have to choreograph a dance in two days and that too without even knowing the lyrics, how can I do justice to it? The artists are also not very good at picking up the steps immediately. Those who are considered the best dancers in the film industry are not familiar with the basic and important rules of dancing,” he explains.

He says that while Pakistanis have talent, people who wanted to work in the mainstream arena had to leave because the remuneration is meagre.

Samrat told The Express Tribune, “If choreographed properly, dances can appeal to people and bring them to cinema houses.”

Deedar, one of the most popular dancers in the commercial theatre scene, says that she had learned how to dance but herself ‘choreographs’ her stage dances. “There isn’t any concept of hiring a choreographer for the commercial plays. We do it on our own,” she says.

The chairman of the Commercial Producers Association, Chaudhry Zulfiqar, says that he does not support the inclusion of the dance sequences that are termed as vulgar, but producers who include them do it based on public demand.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 14^th, 2010.