The air at HyLife Brewing Company, Jubilee Hills, is thick -- with excitement, not tension. There is an interesting kind of liberty in the movement of the air and the people in the space. A synced-up crowd moves with the rhythm and flow of a beaming woman, mimicking her air-kicks and arm punches. The lights overhead add dazzle to the dance.
The woman leading this organised happiness is Jegatha Muralidharan, the creative director of DanceJockey and one of the primary purveyors of Zumba and other dance forms in the city on a public level. “We kicked off a lot of Zumba here because there was not much happening in that area,” she recalls, “As a student in Goa, I used to do Zumba and then I got a license and when I came to Hyderabad, only one person was doing it and it was just a drop-in class. The demand for more Zumba classes grew over a period of six to seven months in 2011, and it was a natural growth and I found myself doing four classes a day everyday, and some high-intensity events, too. Then I brought on more instructors and that’s how DanceJockey was born. I did not want my name on the branding because it’s a team of people working together.”
‘Something special’
Jegatha's Jam Session,
The cultural shift from a more open-minded Goa to a then closed-off Hyderabad was difficult to adapt to for Jegatha. But she stuck by her guns and waited out the rough period. When men started showing interest too, that is when she knew she had started something special.
DanceJockey does not just do Zumba, they have opened their arms to Bachata, Salsa, Merengue, Cha Cha and more. “So funny thing; Zumba came later for me. I’m actually a Latin dancer first! Zumba is based on Latin-style dance and it’s interesting to see how Zumba as a format works because it is obviously a licensed thing, and people are learning more about the industry. In 2009, I started Latin dancing but the following year my then-partner won a major country championship. In Hyderabad, DanceJockey has a lot of events at HyLife Brewing Company, such as the regular Noches Sensuales which always see big crowds. “At the end of the day, everyone should be happy with themselves after a good dance session, and everyone should try different dance forms at least once in their life,” she concludes, hinting at the endorphin and seratonin rushes one is bound to get.
At 35, Jegatha says her intense schedule is what keeps her feeling and looking fresh. It is also the added pressure of a competitive market now -- definitely not what it used to be ten years ago. “You have to be on top of the newer dances coming into the industry,” she explains. Indeed, with the advent of social media, dance has been received differently, and people want to be more fit but with added doses of entertainment. So the demand for dance has not only grown but also diversified.
