Love Mera Hit Hit Performance
The very brave crew who performed Love Mera Hit Hit from Billu Barber for all their coworkers and friends at Google!
These folks are were part of the GFit Bollywood dance class (6 week special series), and they come out extra to practice this dance for the GoogleMela performance.
Special thank you to Jimmy and Mike who joined up so that Scott and Sahil could stop worrying about whether they would be the only guy.
Also shouts out to Christine who would have done a lovely job in the show but had a last minute emergency and couldn’t participate. Next time!
Also special thank you to my good friend, Deb Henigson, who choreographed these dance moves originally – before I got ahold of them and changed them up!
By the way, if you haven’t yet seen the original video that goes with this music, the costumes are awesomely hilarious and worth viewing.
Jimmy, Mike, Scott, and Sahil get the choreography started.
So much punching in this choreography!
Pose! (awesome photos by Rebecca Dowell Mashhadian – good job with a substitute camera!)
Aprajita, Anna, Prachi, and Ruchita have flying hair!
GoogleMela – Great photos
So my husband took up photography to keep himself occupied when I dragged him along to ballroom dance competitions (although really I think he prefers to take photos of natural things). And as he got more into the hobby I learned some myself about cameras and lenses and all these sorts of things. Not that I can do much with a camera – I am happy to outsource that to him, but I can now at least recognize high quality equipment.
Which is why I noticed one particular Googler who was taking photos from the sidelines at the GoogleMela show. Of course I bugged him to send me his photos (you can never have too much evidence), and he sent me the link to his blog.
I had never met Omari before, but I knew his stuff would be at least decent because of his equipment. However I was completely wowed when I actually saw his photos – I really like how he captured more than just the dance. He got attitude, interaction between performers, story line, spirit, cool reflections in the building behind us, all kinds of interesting things besides just the dancing. It’s always a treat to see what we do through someone else’s viewpoint.
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Like take this photo of Susan Lin getting ready to do her Mongolian chopstick dance. You get one story line with her intense concentration on getting ready – making sure her shoes are going to be sticky enough (I think she puts sugary Sprite on them to make them not slide!) The photograph puts her as central, and includes her cool looking shadow. But there’s a whole second story line in the window – all the Bollywood Medley dancers in the middle of dancing Aaja Nachle! I feel like you can feel the whole complex of the moment just in this one moment – on stage and off stage both represented.
Thank you Omari!
Bohemian National Polka Performance at GoogleMela
The what what what? I remember when I first heard the name of this dance I was a wee bit confused. But it really is a special dance from Bohemia, (also known today as the Czeck Republic).
This choreography was done by local dance hero Richard Powers, based on research by the Czech dance historian Frantisek Bonus. It is intended to portray the steps and forms of the original 1830s National Style of Polka from Bohemia, ten years before “polkamania” swept the world. Pro
f. Bonus’ long and complex collection of figures was intended for stage performance by a professional company. Richard’s choreography is still challenging but is a social form danced for pleasure. In fact, it’s danced many times at Friday Night Waltz or Gaskells ball.
If you’d like to learn this dance there are sometimes classes before Friday Night Waltz, or with Richard at Stanford, or with me at various locations.
Thanks to all the awesome Googlers – Scott, Rowyn, Merry, Mike, Daniel, Tracey, Sarah and Lincoln, who took the time to practice this dance, and took even more time to get themselves dressed up to perform it (I think you took longer to get into those dresses than to rehearse!) Sarah I can’t believe how great you look in my dress – hmmm… You all looked great – extra thank yous to Tracey for making all the costuming happen.
What a fun addition to GoogleMela! Represent the WGN! Seriously though, it was great variety to have a traditional piece from a different part of the world and with such a different style – thank you all! And I hope all your feet have recovered from the very hot stage…
Google Bollywood Series Success!
Teaching Bollywood at Google was a huge success!
Everyone keeps asking if we are going to have more Bollywood classes – for now all I can say is come to my other classes at Google!
Dance classes are offered every day:
Monday and Wednesday at 7 pm we have Hip Hop dance. These days there is so much hip hop in Bollywood – it almost feels the same! I even use some Hindi remixes in the music I play, so if you liked Bollywood you’ll probably like this class.
Tuesday and Thursday at 4 pm we have Around the World class. This class always features at least one Bollywood or Bhangra. We also do dances from China, Russia, Africa, Ireland, Brazil… everywhere! It’s a great workout and lots of fun.
Fridays at 5 pm we have Zumba, which is cardio latin dance (salsa, samba, cha cha, etc). Start your weekend out right with this healthy dose of exercise, great music, and fun steps. Check the internal groupfitness link for more information.
I was so impressed at the turn out that we had at Bollywood. We had between 50-85 dancers in each class, 230 dancers in all came out to class at some point. Everyone had such great energy it was like a party! It was great to see dancers of all ages, genders, races, etc. coming out to enjoy this little taste of Indian culture.
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We danced to songs from various hit movies, including:
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Twist from Love Aaj Kal
Mauja hi Mauj
Nagada, Nagada
Nach Baliye,
Khwab Dekhe
Latoo
Dance Pe Chance
Love Mera Hit Hit
Desi Girl
Raahe Raahe by Jasi Sidhu (Bhangra)
Dhoom Machale
Dard E Disco
Deewangi Deewangi
It’s hard to believe that we did all that in just 6 classes! That was a lot of
steps that everyone learned.
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A big round of thank yous to my fabulous teaching assistants who came out weeks before the class to learn all the steps. Due to them it was possible for people even in the back of the room to see someone who know what was going on and have a good time participating. Thank you to Katherine, Karina, Minya, Lan, Jatin, Sugeeti, Finnegan, Merry, and Lauren for showing up early, helping with setup, learning all those steps, and helping to make this all possible.
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I would also like to thank the IGN for working with us to throw a little afterparty after every class – you guys are awesome! Of course a big thank you to John Thomas (my contact at the IGN) who helped me week after week to arrange tasty food for everyone. We had samosas, mango lassis, a special tea tasting, Indian sweets – all different things on different weeks! I hope everyone enjoyed the party as much as I did. Also big thank you to Anuj, Neha, Angeli, Vamsi, Amit, and other IGN helpers who came out to help with food and recruiting.
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If you’d like to join the IGN head to go/IGN – they have a neat blog and lots of information on what’s coming up next.
And of course, thank you to GFit that was responsible for this class. I am so glad that the managers at GFit are flexible and enthusiastic about such crazy ideas as having a huge dance class in a Tech Talk room. Thanks to Sue Hutchinson for being so supportive of all the off-the-wall endeavors, and thanks to Sue, Josh, and Newton for helping with set up and check in.
Too bad my most favorite-est AV specialist wasn’t there for all the classes. But thank you to Heraldo for the classes that he could make before he went to Japan. It was so good to have you there to balance the mic and music and video etc. etc.! And a special thank you to Rebecca and Dave and Debra who came completely of their own good nature to move chairs, check people in, help with food setup, and general moral support. You guys are awesome.
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See you all soon in all the other GFit dance classes!
Have thoughts on what else you want to see at Google? Email sueh@google.com
Anna and Ruchita on dress up day – Thank you to Ruchita for arranging costumes for the GoogleMela performance!
Anna with two super teaching assistants – Lan and Minya – go Group Shimmy!
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Anna with the finance team (we’re in the money, the skies are sunny…) Thanks to Anuj for awesome recruiting skillz and to Karina for being a great T.A.!
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.Bollywood dancers, concentrating hard!
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Anna with the Scott, Ruchita, Prachi and Aprajita who were some of the performers at GoogleMela representing the GFit Bollywood Dance Class! They performed Love Mera Hit Hit from Billu Barber and were a grand opening to the show.
