No proper practice space. No proper costumes. Limited finance. Very little encouragement. But a strong desire to dance was all that D'Malice Dance Crew had and needed to egg them on. And the dance troupe created history recently by becoming the first from Goa to be selected for the dance reality show Dance Plus which is aired on Star Plus. The group made it to top 30 contestants clearing five different levels of auditions before being eliminated recently.
“Being given an opportunity to participate in this show was awesome as it was also the first reality show that we competed in. For the first time also we got a chance to train under some of the best professional choreographers having previously just learnt from YouTube videos,” says Aditya Borkar, the leader of the team.
And indeed, it wasn't just training, D'Malice have faced plenty of hurdles along their journey so far. “ We come from the small village of Borim where there is no question of even getting into dance. However, we used to see this guy in our village put up solo performances at small village events and Ganesh visarjans. He was different from the rest and we too decided to give dancing a try,” narrates Borkar. The troupe began small, participating in small village level competitions, before Borkar decided it was time to take the team to state level platform. The trope won not only the second place but also a special choreography award which boosted their confidence. Another noteworthy performance was at the Dance Goa Dance competition held in 2013 where they emerged winners once again. “ At this point I had approached our village panchayat asking them to give us a space to practice for this competition as until then we used to practice outside out houses or in balconies,” he says. “We were given a hall but only for a few days after which they stated that because of the noise they had to stop us. However when we asked around in the vicinity we found that they had no objections and instead were happy that we were making their village proud. So I don't know what the problem was . But it was indeed sad that we didn't have support even from our own panchayat.”
Creating dance costumes was also no small task. “ As we didn't have finances in the beginning we used to wear track pants with a t-shirt worn upside down to hide the print and were often taunted because of this,” recalls Borkar, adding that the team later took it upon themselves to work getting personalized costumes done somehow.
And despite all odds, D'Malice didn't back down. And their stupendous performance on Dance Plus is proof that this troupe consisting of seventeen members will go far. “ Due to lack of finances, we used to stay on railway platforms during our stint on the show. If the audition was at 1 pm the next day we woulds reach the site at 1 am itself as the lines were long . It was only after we made it to the top 30 that the production team took us into their hotel,” recalls Borkar. However owing to illness, Borkar believes that they couldn't manage to qualify to the next round. “We had five days to practice but because of fever we managed to practice only on the last day. Despite this we gave it our best,” he says, adding that their mentor Dharmesh was very supportive and did all he could to make them feel at home.
However, Borkar hasn't ruled out the involvement of politics in the results. “ Many of the contestants there were big shows and had godfathers in this field. Some had performed at international level too. We were probably one of the few without any of this. Also TRP's and votes played a huge role,” he says. However, the team did manage to change the perception of people towards Goan talent. “ They told us that they hadn't considered conducting audtions in Goa previously because they only considered it as a tourist and party hub. But seeing our performance Remo D'Souza stated that he would come down and do auditions in Goa for the next season,” he says. The crew still stands a chance to make it back on the show. “ They have wild card entries where four teams out of those who were eliminated could be brought back. We are keeping our fingers crossed but we don't want to get out hopes to high up,” says Borkar, adding that they are also looking to participate in the competition Indian Hip Hop.
BOX
THE TEAM
Aditya Borkar
Dattesh Naik
Praveen Ghadi
Dipesh Naik
Mahendra Borkar
Samir Borkar
Gaurav Naik
Omkar Kavlekar
Raj Neil,
Rohit Naik
Shubham Satoskar
Abhijit Palkar
Avinash Paleykar
Sahil Landgae
Saieesh Shirodkar,
Edny Dsouza
Pliston Miranda
