Whether you flaunt your every move on the dance floor or sway to your favorite songs in the car, dance is an activity that everybody enjoys, in one way or another. Luckily, dancing is something that will not only bring a smile to your face, but can also help improve your physical and mental health. It is great exercise that gets your mind and muscles working no matter who you are.
Dance has always been Pravin’s love so at the age of 15, he started dancing professionally. Great talents never go unnoticed and the same happened with him. He got a chance to work with Bollywood choreographer-turned-director Remo Dsouza. Working with Remo changed Pravin Bhosale’s life completely changed as he learnt more about dancing. Remo’s feedbacks boosted his confidence on the stage too. Remo was also impressed by Pravin’s talent and gave him a break in his 2012 film, ABCD 2 starring Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor. Among the best troops that the film featured, he was one of the best dancers in it too. Pravin Bhosale, who’s now 31, says that he cannot imagine anything bigger and better as a debut project to enter Bollywood. He not only got to showcase his dancing abilities but his acting chops too. He says that working with Remo D’Souza in ABCD 2 taught him patience and integrity.
Pravin Bhosale says, it’s easy to throw around cute phrases like “dance as if no one’s watching,” or to tell people to love themselves with wild abandon. But in the real world, we have stress, and bullies, and hierarchies, and media, and relationships, and a myriad of other factors that contribute not only to who we are, but to how we perceive ourselves.
We’ve heard it before, but what does it mean to “dance like no one’s watching”? To me, it means dancing free from judgment, criticism or fear of what others might think. It means dancing in my bedroom at seven years old to Paula Abdul’s Shut Up and Dance album. It means being present and not overwhelmed or consumed by others’ expectations. It means focusing on why I started dancing in the first place — for fun, for expression, for connection, for me says Pravin Bhosale.
He says, I’m constantly being watched and expected to be great. It can get difficult, but whenever I dance, I think, “Dance like no one is watching.” Once I forget about all the other people in the room, my body just lets loose, and I can actually put my heart and soul into my performance. It makes such a difference watching a dance when a dancer puts his or her all into a dance and shows emotion through dance moves, rather than a dancer that is nervous and just trying not to mess up. I achieve this by pretending that no one is watching.
One way to embrace “dancing like no one’s watching” is to dance for you. This doesn’t necessarily mean by yourself but rather dancing without expectation or praise from others. Dance to connect to yourself, your passion, your desire to move from the places that words could never express. Are you able to do this? You might find that you don’t know how to engage in dance unless it is accompanied by praise or external validation. I urge you to reconnect to the reasons you started dancing in the first place he quoted.