American Band Stand: Indian Style

It was just like American Bandstand of the 1950’s, this humid evening in Bangalore. A danceable tune was booming from the band on stage and everyone was gyrating and dancing up a storm. Well… to be truer in the retelling of the moment, the large assembled crowd in the small open field by our apartment was standing much like stone pillars planted in the ground. But there was a band on stage and there was a great tune flowing forth.

Many things come to us in India that we just don’t understand. First of all, there was an enormous festival taking place in the colony just outside our apartment compound wall. We had no clue what was going on. Several days earlier, a giant bamboo scaffolding rose from the ground at the corner of our street and Airport Road in which the outline of a deity was traced with multi-colored lights. We didn’t understand that either. Religious music started blaring from the field nearby our apartment at 5:00 AM. We did understand that.

After a few days, the religious atmosphere of the goings on appeared to take on a more secular festival tone. We felt a bit more comfortable venturing forth and mingling with our neighbors.

We wandered from our apartment and took a short walk that lead us into the small walled compound where the stage was set, the music blaring and stone pillars planted. We mingled. The beat was an easy cha-cha. Our toes tapped, our feet shuffled and before long we were in full cha-cha motion. Despite the cramp conditions, the crowd opened a space. Hooting and clapping soon surrounded us. Before long the small crew with the video camera used to broadcast the bandstand acts, trained its bright spot light on us. More hooting…more clapping…and our rhythmic cha-cha transformed our stone pillar neighbors into a gyrating and dancing knot of fellow revealers.

The song ended. We were urged by the crowd to continue with the next song into another dance. No cha-cha beat… no east coast swing rhythm. We successfully deferred. We stayed among our fellow young revealers, their arms raised, bodies swinging (video) lost in the beat of the music. Dancing has been banned in Bangalore bars and clubs earlier this year, so we figured our dancing was enjoyed and we would not go to jail. We thought that was the end of our evening outing.

With the band still thumping out a rousing tune, we were approached by festival organizers clearly recognized by the large buttons worn on their shirts. With grace they motioned us forward to the stage. Clarity of intent strikes us as we are lead onto the stage, introduced in the native language of Kannada and invited to dance for the crowd. With no need to worry about bail money, we swing and gyrate…raise our arms…move our hips and woo our newly found 300 best friends. Afterwards we are given flowers, a fruit basket, a small trophy and treated as honored guests in our festival decorated neighborhood by the Dick Clark of Bangalore.