What is success without its share of bitter-sweet struggle? Ask ‘The Garagewalas’ and they will confirm it’s incomplete. This bunch of youngsters, who set out to give way to their flaming passion for dance seven years ago, had little support in terms of guidance and infrastructure in their initial days.
Since their parents brushed aside their interest saying “it’s just dance”, they were thrown out of houses during dance sessions and landed up in each other’s garages – the only place where they found their much needed space. “We used to even get together and dance in car parks (laughs) but eventually realised that garage is where we belong,” narrates Rahul Chopra, the oldest member of the group, who was also instrumental in forming ‘The Garagewalas’.
And today, from winning High School and College competitions, this eclectic gang of 10 boys have not only made their presence felt in all the major concerts taking place in Auckland (Atif Aslam, Adnan Sami, Jay Sean and Hard Kaur to name a few) but also have a Bollywood film to their credit. “We shot a song for the film “De Taali” starring Riteish Deshmukh. The song was cut in post production but we were lucky to get that exposure with big names,” Rahul informs.
Fresh out of a local Bollywood dance group in 2006, Rahul and a few of his school buddies decided to take their love for dance further by doing something on their own, as Rahul says, “When we do things on our own, we learn more.” So they spread a word among their classmates at Mount Roskill Grammar School to come forward and shake a leg. The response was great and the teen dancers quickly found like-‘footed’ people. “There even came a time when a lot of our juniors wanted to join in too but we couldn’t accommodate them. Hence, they formed their own group called ‘Little Garagewalas’ and went on to win many junior competitions under the brand name,” Rahul recounts proudly.
However, they are now all one. ‘The Garagewalas’ at present is a mix of both “younger and older brothers”. “The key to our group was to stick together. There have been thousands of dance groups but they have all been one-offs. Very few have been as consistent. Whereas we have formed a bond over time. Before it was all about competition for us but now, it’s about co-operation. Besides, the biggest strength of our group is that everybody is as good as each other and we complement each other. There is no leader,” Rahul reveals.
Bhangra being their main focus (they have even conducted Bhangra workshops for Europeans and Islanders, much to the latter’s delight), ...along with adding Bollywood beats to their dance of course, the boys are now aiming at diversifying their styles by adding hip-hop to their performances. And the influence comes from the hip-hop groups in New Zealand, which Rahul terms as being the best in the world. “New Zealand is undoubtedly a dancing country but our inspiration has been the two groups from UK and US – Khalsa Junction and Bruin Bhangra,” he adds.
In addition, ‘The Garagewalas’ is not just about dance. It’s a group which believes in telling stories through their art form. “What sets us apart from the other dance groups is our ideas. Our performances are peppered with humour and convey messages, which have been constantly liked by people. Our USP is the snippets and stories we come up with and the theatrical element to our dance. We have imbibed themes as varied as Christchurch earthquake and Rugby World Cup to zumba and homosexual tones,” Rahul says, adding, “We can afford to portray the last theme effectively since we are all boys (winks).”
As much as the boys would want to make their passion their profession, lack of funds make it an improbable reality. “It’s only now that we have started charging for corporate shows, weddings and other events. But it just enables us to recover our cost of costumes and props yet,” Rahul says. Hence, it’s a group of dancers from fields as diverse as business, engineering and architecture.
With the age bracket of 17-25 years, ‘The Garagewalas’ includes Rahul Chopra, Daivik Raj, Moonis Vegdani, Siddharth Krish, Abeer Ali Syed, Siva Shankar, Munsarim Ahmed, Athurva Kulkarni, Kaushik Balan and Vignesh Krish.
So what’s next? “Well, we have toured Wellington and Napier lately and our aim is to tour the rest of New Zealand and then move on to perform at Sydney and Melbourne,” says Rahul, wishfully.
We wish them all the success. Meanwhile if you think you have it in you to be a ‘Garagewala’, get in touch with the gang, who is more than willing to train aspiring dancers to add on to their number.
Remember, there are no auditions, just the requirement of having that spring in your step.
* Rahul can be contacted on 0212149243.