As they danced in the ballroom in Ankara, the well dressed gentleman leading the beautiful lady through a succession of graceful twists and turns, their movements were perfectly in sync. It was at that moment that Hazan realised that he wanted to learn how to dance. A recent graduate of the IBA, Karachi, Hazan had sold his jeep to pay for a vacation to Turkey. “I visited a dance school on my trip and when I saw those two people have this amazing conversation through dance, I immediately decided to extend my stay in Turkey and enrolled to learn ballroom dancing,” he says.
Now, back in Karachi, Hazan is the Assistant Vice President of a local private bank by day but by night you can find him twisting and twirling at ActOne, where he teaches salsa jive. “When salsa was introduced to England, lots of people found it difficult to move their hips, thus salsa jive was born,” Hazan explains, “It’s easy to learn and you can do it on any song, Bollywood, hip hop or pop.”
Salsa jive, also called modern jive, is probably the simplest, and some would say the most fun, of all forms of dancing. It is taught in the form of “moves” (a short sequences of steps) which are then linked together to form a flowing dance.
Hazan was invited to the World Salsa Congress in Mexico but unfortunately could not attend due to visa difficulties. This year the World Salsa Congress is being held in Cuba, and will supposedly be five times bigger than previous events. Hazan has been invited again and hopes to attend this year. “It’s not a competition. All the world champions of dance converge at the event and conduct workshops on dance. I will also be performing the rhumba with the Mexican champion, Ms Beatriz Franco and I plan to spend my three days there soaking in all I can from the masters of dance.”
He concludes: “I never knew that one day dancing would take over my life but it did. Dancing helps me relax, it lets me express myself.”
Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, November 13th, 2011.
COMMENTS (9)
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@Dr Omar i couldnt agree more, the youth of our nation would benefit so much with these creative outlets that require energy, coordination and a certain sense of discipline. Music/art/dance should be a mandatory part of the curriculum for the young ones but sadly so we know the situation and that would be too much to hope for :(
@ Kashi Get a life please!
In this day and age, we need more recreational outlets as such , like more cinema, theatre, literature (book readings) music and even dancing. And all of these should be at an affordable price so that people can indulge in them.
These things keep a society sane, performing arts make a society more considerate, humane, understanding, enlightning, and tolerant. They also allow people from different origins to become one.
Their practice makes a society more multi-dimensional and open. Such endeavors need to be encouraged not discouraged!
this newspaper is taking ppl towards negative sides, how much that dance instructor gave money to this newspaper to publicity of this add ???
Being the only one doesn't make anyone the best!
Ballroom dance ? sounds good, but pls check the local Mullah before doing it, else one might be in some serious trouble... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1112128/Dancing-girl-murdered-Taliban-refusing-traditional-performances-despite-death-threats.html
Video please ? or it didn't happened
I would love to learn ballroom dancing. There is something very graceful and sensuous about it which is not to be found in other dancing styles. Salsa can be learnt later.
@Bhatti: It is hard not to be robotic in your moves unless you've been dancing since childhood or have a naturally fluid movements :(
Excellent Dance !
Tough and mind teasing steps :S Remember folks, girls like guys who are at their usual random rather than being so unnatural and robotic.. YO!