Rajneesh Mangla and Barbara Pais presented a medley of various social dances on some all time Hindi hit songs in Munich on 23rd November 2019 in an event organized by Aman Creations. They took around three weeks to conceptualize the choreography, select the music and to practice the steps. They come from different dance backgrounds. Rajneesh has learned some Latin dances like Forro, Samba, Bachata in last years and Barbara is more towards swing dances. But they helped each other to understand the steps and to make everything work. It took immense amount of patience for both of them to understand each other's musical language, conceptualize each beat of the music to present as many steps as possible from each dance form. The outcome was astonishing.
Here is the list of songs:| song | dance style presented | tempo (BPM) |
|---|---|---|
| तू तू है वही दिल ने जिसे अपना कहा | Bachata, Samba de Gafieira | 73 |
| चढ़ती जवानी मेरी चाल मस्तानी | Forro | 114 |
| बोल बोल कुछ तो बोल, क्या नाम है तेरा | Shag | 108 |
| दीवाना मुझ सा नहीं - ओ जान-ए-जाना | Lindy Charleston | 95 |
| दे दिया दिल पिया, साथिया | Forro, Zouk | 97 |
According to Rajneesh, the Hindi songs have normally been the byproducts of commercial projects (mainly movies) and have been partially responsible for the success of the movies. So the songs were not restricted only to the Indian folk styles. The composers did a lot of experiments adapting styles and melodies from all over the world, to make the songs as exotic as possible. That is why we can hear a wide variety of styles in Hindi (film) songs. But the way these songs were brought to the screen often did not correspond to the music styles. So Rajneesh always wanted to learn as many dance styles as possible to dance on these songs.
Barbara, who comes form Portugal, says this small project reminded her deeply that she loves to dance. Also it was a nice experience to create something from scratch and bring it to the end. She is not a total stranger to India or Indians. She has many Indian friends and has been to India for a Yoga camp. There are couple of things about Indians which intrigue her, like why Indians are so obsessed with cinema, why the popular music comes mainly from films, why Indian female singers sing in such a thin voice, why Indians look younger than they are.