Dance respected and accepted as career: Geeta

Ace choreographer Geeta Kapur says the awareness created around the art of dance, courtesy reality TV shows, has brought respect and acceptance to it as a career option.“The biggest change that I have witnessed over the years, is the acceptability of dancing as a field. That was not there earlier. Also, respectability,” said Geeta. “The reason behind this change is the reality TV platforms which have brought in awareness for the people to see it as a respectable job. Geeta, who has been part of various seasons of popular show “Dance India Dance”, says parents have now started encouraging their children to participate in dance-based shows. 

“When today parents come up to us and say, ‘My kid wants to be a choreographer or dancer’, it really motivates us.” Geeta, who is a trained classical dancer, feels that dancers should be versatile enough 

to try all dancing styles.

“We have this thinking that the youngsters mainly prefer western dance forms. But I don’t feel that. It is important for a dancer to be versatile. They need to have an open mind towards different forms of dancing.” 

Geeta also feels that due to the realistic approach of filmmakers, dance is getting neglected from movies. While appreciating the efforts made by Remo D’souza and Farah Khan in making dance-oriented films, Geeta explained , “There are very few films that actually relate to dance. Now scripts are changing and have become more real. So there’s no dance. There is a need to make more dance-based films. It’s in our culture to dance.”

Geeta is currently seen as a judge on the new Sony Entertainment Television show “Super Dancer” alongside actor Shilpa Shetty and filmmaker Anurag Basu.