Robot gopis
Two contestants on the American show So You Think You Can Dance did a number from Om Shanti Om recently (thanks, Prakruti and Pooja). It’s a marvelous job, but their style is very pro dancer, pinpoint precise with ballet-style spotting. It reminds me of the way some Japanese women raised in Japan dance salsa, a technical approach to a flowing form. Wait, did they just do the Robot? 
Choreographer Nakul Dev Mahajan chose well. ‘Dhoom Tana’ pays homage to iconic Bollywood films and is probably the best sequence in the movie:
And now Farah Khan is finally on Fox.
on Thursday, July 10th, 2008, 3:57 pm in Dance, Film, Video clips › 
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I think it is unfair to call Katie and Joshua Robots.
According to me, they did a very good job being non-desi. Its true that they did not have finesse of a brown girl, but that something you get it by being culture and more importantly, its in brown genes.
I saw the Australian and Isreali version of SYTYCD doing bollywood style and they totally failed at it.
http://utopianvision.co.uk/bollywood/videos/?v=_24mPSYOiT4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiNxFPlGeNU
It’s not genes, it’s just practice. We had plenty of non-desis in our culture shows at Cal, and they did a fine job.
These Japanese girls do a damn good job.
Manish, these kids get a week to learn two new dances. And of all the pairs these two are the best dancers this season. you are right it didnot look that graceful as an indian would dance, but they did a great job in that short time.
I thought the choreography was very good.
Some of the steps are so hard physically on legs that I feel that they did a great job despite a tough routine.
what thrilled me more than all that, after 3 years of watching this show I was so happy to see a bollywood routine there.
Today my american collegues (guys) at work came up to me asked me if I saw the routine and told me it was lovely. so I promised them to loan some of my bollywood movies so that they can see more indian dances..
stop hating, monish. those cats were sick. i’ve been to one of your beloved culture shows at Cal, and it’s a bunch of masi-lookin chicks doing bushleague garba to mendhi te vaavi.
I have fallen in serious luv with these two dancers over this season of “So you…Dance”. Their energy is focused! searing! My kinda robots, mang.
I wanna know what that looks like. Any yootoob links, flagpole?
this is how people dance at fake-Stanford:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PjuSPvKmT4
bess — you sound hot, despite your anglo name. hit me up on the 3G iPhone, but don’t call me “flagpole,” the name’s “kutta.”
I second Prakruti. The main idea is to provide entertainment on these ‘reality’ shows. They get 7 days to practice the steps — not to master any sort of of grace & charm. And, there’s a reason Bollywood is a genre on this show. To challenge the non-desis, to bring in South Asian viewers and to provide entertainment that will become fodder for attention (think Sanjaya). It’s called the “reality show formula.” Given these, they did exceptionally well, looked amazingly energetic, & did better than Ayesha’s global comparisons.
But the “flagpole” is what was getting me all hot, kutta.
As you yourself pointed out to me, bollywood dancing desis can’t seem to learn to Bhangra well, and hopefully they’ve been exposed to it for more than a week …
I reckon I can put my finger on this. They took the camp out of Bollydancing.
But, as someone who has quite liked SYTYCD when I’ve seen it (it made me realise I’m not as good as I think I am), I think these two did a great job. One has to ask - who’s better Deepika Padukone or them? Padukone’s not a bad dancer like some models have proven to be, but nothing amazing. At least these two were memorable.
Hang on, did I just imply Deepika Padukone isn’t memorable? Retracted! But perhaps not for her dancing…
Right, no dancers posturing in the wind machine in that number…
they did not have finesse of a brown girl, but that something you get it by being culture and more importantly, its in brown genes
It’s not in the brown genes, not even in India. “Grace,” as we call it in bharathanatyam circles depends on the flexibility of the individual and his/her ability to bend and jibe with the music.
Also, the So You Think You Can Dance version of Dhoom Thana looked like South Indian korathi (tribal) dancing with some kathak and bharathanatyam thrown in.
They’re not trying to do bhangra, they’re pulling it into filmi. What I find more annoying is the random Punjabi words thrown into Hindi. Feels like incomplete pidgin.
Nice try, but instead of linking to some lame-sauce garba, why don’t you twist that mooch and step to this?
I dont think I have ever seen brown people dance as good as they did, to be honest.
Indian people do every thing half assed when it comes to anything outside of studying books and business.
Maitri, totally agree with you. I learnt bharatnatyam and this dance piece had a lot of bharatnatyam steps.. and a lil bit of kathak too..
Shallow thinker, these kids danced well, but brown people dance well too..didnt u see our bollywood films..we indians are more dance, fun , song that any other culture…u dont see no bollywood film without atleast one dance and song..good thing is we study books, think business, dance like crazy and eat super spicy food..we are passionate culture..
This site earned a mention from salon.com for posting the clip, so I felt compelled to visit. I just experienced the intellectual and emotional maturity level of the commentaries, and I think I’ll stick to salon.com and Sepia Mutiny (sometimes–that site gets on my nerves, too).