Monica Bhasin
ABOUT: MONICA BHASIN FOUNDER, MERRYFEET LINEDANCE, INDIA She Teaches Line Dance in South Delhi and she enjoys it. It has given her a great deal in return. The ride through different and varied sectors in her working career defines what she enjoys in her classes today. In that order, managing a finance company, microfinance skill development, theatre, conceptualizing, preparing and executing fund raisers and now teaching dance are part of her professional journey. 12 years of running a Non Banking Finance company, and training urban slum women while developing skills in micro finance initiatives in their colonies, did not throw challenges like some dance class situations do and she is happy for her journey. The walk across different professions gives her a sense of freedom. It also makes her kitty of experiences big and rich. She is certified as a dance teacher by the UKA Dance, England. She hopes to make the Merry Feet Community bigger and would like more people to take this dance form to different parts of Delhi, and the rest of India. She teaches Line Dance in New Delhi, India and she enjoys it, She considers it an opportunity and privilege to be appointed as the Indian Ambassador to Line Dance Foundation Monica Bhasin www.merryfeet.club
I.C.E EXPERIENCE SO FAR
For me it started with the lure of an old track which Laura and Debbie picked. The experience of sitting in a conference in a live VTV Facebook session was phenomenal. Laura and Debbie had to follow a 100 suggestions, being tapped in by our racing minds and quick fingers. Kudos to them for the quickest understanding of which of our ideas to pick and which to drop. I.C.E truly came up as a result of a hot joint exercise. The baseball caps were topping on the cake. everyone fished them out of their closets and looked as cool as I.C.E
STAMPED DANCES
Show me your light
I.C.E.
SHOW ME YOUR LIGHT
Experience with music: I understood from the classes that I was attending with Rob, that he welcomes creativity and uniqueness. He is open to nuances from other cultures. I looked and found Vidya Vox who is trained in Classical Carnatic music from the South of India. Her western influence adds zing to her music and shared the track with Rob.on VTV ICE. He loved it. This was encouraging.
Experience with Choreography I asked Elaine Cook if she would co-choreograph it with me. She was excited about it and open to the idea of introducing Indian elements of folk dancing. She looked up Bollywood which is the most familiar genre for non-Indians. I decided to introduce my ICE friends to Bihu which is a folk dance from Assam, the North of India. We worked in perfect understanding which brought ease to the project. Rob suggested we keep it simple, smooth, and flowing because it had elements which were unfamiliar, the arms for instance and the hip movement with the popping of knees. He helped us decode the Pixie dust, the first time he heard the track. That helped immensely. We worked on the 48 count combination and it hit the accents emphatically. He took us through 7 drafts before he found that it would work for most dancers. He was particular about us keeping it at Improver level. Grading of dances is important, I observed, and is communicated clearly in most classes. Enjoy the dance. I love the Pixie dust in the dance.
Dance Script Here
I.C.E.
I.C.E For me it started with the lure of an old track which Laura and Debbie picked. The experience of sitting in a conference in a live VTV Facebook session was phenomenal. Laura and Debbie had to follow a 100 suggestions, being tapped in by our racing minds and quick fingers. Kudos to them for the quickest understanding of which of our ideas to pick and which to drop. I.C.E truly came up as a result of a hot joint exercise. The baseball caps were topping on the cake. everyone fished them out of their closets and looked as cool as I.C.E