‘FUZD’- a fusion dance blending hip hop into Bharatanatyam!
‘Fuzed’ is an initiative by two professional dancers –Stuti Mukherjee, a trained classical Bharatanatyam dancer( trained in Bharatanatyam for 11 years from Late Guru Govindam Kutty (conferred with Uday Shankar lifetime achievement award’) and Late.Guru Thankumuni Kutty-awarded with Bharatmuni Samman- (who were Gurus of Bollywood actress Hema Malini, presently Stuti is being trained by Guru Aishwarya Vijaykumar (in Ottawa)
,and Aesumon Sunny George ,an experienced hip hop dancer to create an amalgamation of South East Asian and North American culture.‘Fuzed’ features a rhythmic fusion of ‘Bharatanatyam’, and Hip hop.
On one hand, ‘Bharatanatyam’ is believed to be one of the oldest traditional Indian dance forms ( originated in 2nd century CE), exclusively performed by woman, expressing religious themes like the three creators of this universe (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva). While, ‘Hip-hop‘ on the other hand, came into limelight only in 1970s in the US. This form of dance includes movements/ styles like ‘breaking’, ‘krumping’, turfing and jerking.
This form of ‘street dance style’ has gained much popularity over the years as a part of ‘hip-hop culture.
From Dancer- Stuti Mukherjee:
Recently I started my own dance company , its is called ‘FUZD’- a fusion dance troupe of Ottawa.
The global aim and motivation behind this start up is to propagate my cultural and traditional values across the globe. After my rigorous training in Bharatanatyam (for 11 years) from India, I moved to Germany. During that phase, I believed that moving countries to pursue professional excellence meant absolute cessation of my passion in arts and entertainment. Only when I started performing in front of German and Indian audience, I understood that art in any form is widely applauded and appreciated by audience. That probably put an end to my recurrent skepticism about performing an Indian classical dance form such as Bharatanatyam in a Western country.
Similarly, moving from Germany to a more accepting county like Canada, boosted my motivation to hold on to Bharatanatyam. After performing at bigger and better platforms in the capital city of Canada, I realized that there is no harm in blending in North America’s popular dance form hip hop into Bharatanatyam.
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