01 December 2011

A flash mob dance in Mumbai



My post about the flash mob dance in flash mob dance in Beirut generated a number of comments, one of which was obviously promotional in nature, coming from a first-time commenter titled "Mumbai Events" and linked to a website promoting Bombay tourism.  Normally I ignore such material, but this time I watched and found it to be enjoyable, if for no other reason than to see an unfamiliar dance style.  During my years in academia, many of my friends, colleagues, and best students came from the Indian subcontinent, so this also brought back a variety of very pleasant memories.

The music playing on the public address system is “Rang De Basanti”.  The location is the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) of the Mumbai railway system. The occasion was an anniversary of the 2008 terrorist attack.

Credit:
Shonan Kothari, organizer of the Flash Mob dance at Mumbai VT (CST) StationThe mob dance was the idea of Shonan Kothari, a researcher for Harvard Business School. Work on the dance started in October, with a group of 325 volunteers. A friend of Shonan, Bhaumik Shah, choreographed the dance. Shonan hired Running Cow Films to make an official video of the event. The group of volunteers would practice at Priyadarshani Park.

One of the toughest parts was to get permission from the Indian Railway officials to allow the flash mob dance at CST. Shonan’s persistance paid off when the railway authorities gave permission on the condition that the event would not be used for publicity or for commercial purpose. Congratulations to the Railway authorities for letting this go ahead.

7 comments:

  1. This always make me cry a little with joy.
    --And I don't dance a step.

    Just a beautiful thing to bring joy into folks lives. :)

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  2. If it is organized, choreographed, practiced and performed with permission - is "mob" really accurate :)

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  3. Purely in terms of language, I would think "mob" would be o.k., because the word means "crowd of people."

    But perhaps the modifier "flash" should be changed to denote the shift from spontaneous to planned.

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  4. I didn't comment on the previous posting, but I enjoyed it so much I linkedit up over on Facebook and like you, watched it several times. It made me happy to see.
    Among some of the comments I received were surprise that the women were "uncovered" and free to dance in public.
    Some of my friends are real idiots.

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  5. bulletholes, that's one of the reasons for posting and reposting stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  6. ....the spirit is definitely worth appreciating....

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  7. Could this specific type of dancing and film project possibly be ANY LESS INTERESTING????

    Enough is enough.

    JUST SAY NO!

    It's tired.

    ReplyDelete

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