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’ Photo: Murali kumar k.

Two to tango Giju John: ‘Salsa is a rare mix of passion and social dancing

But there was no connection with the arts “though I grew up studying Indian classical art from a young age,” says Giju, who is trained in Carnatic classical music and Bharatanatya. “My parents wanted me to be in the arts. My training helped me get a sense of rhythm and music. In college too I was into cultural activities,” he says.

Being fond of Hindi and Tamil film songs, Giju always “dreamt of becoming a pop star. I did not know how to go about it and that was the toughest part. I saw salsa only when I moved to Florida. My first interaction with Salsa was at Club Miami. There was just so much energy and passion in the air that I had to learn it. There was so much sensuality and elegance in the way couples moved their bodies to the music, it was a rare mix of passion and social dancing,” explains Giju, who then took lessons in salsa.

“Even at that time I was not ambitious. But just wanted to learn to dance out of curiosity,” he adds and says that his destiny changed when he met his instructors — John and Liz — the brains behind Salsamania. He was so good that they asked him to join the group. And that was the beginning of his life in the spotlight abroad. But he was still anonymous in his own land. That troubled Giju. He wanted to make a mark “on Indian soil”.

The best way to do it was to release a music album with Hindi music mixed with Latin beats. And he also went ahead and made a video of his first number “Rang rageeli”. “I wanted to bring salsa to the Indian mainstream. But, again did not know how to go about it.” He faced difficulty for he is “a singer and not a composer, so I had my own creative limitations.”

Yet, Giju spent two years creating songs that would “have their own identity. I wrote down the theme for the songs and got someone to work on the lyrics and the music.” The video was so good that it was telecast on MTV. “But, the project failed as the CDs hit the stands months after the promos were stopped. So people had forgotten about my hard work. And living so far off, I could not do anything much to help the situation. But then one always learns from one’s mistakes,” says the determined dancer-singer.

This time Giju is back in India. His aim was to promote salsa among Indians and to give them a message of hope that we too can do well professionally on the international circuit with careers such as dance. And his second mission is to audition young Indian salsa dancers for his second music album. Giju has chosen 20 dancers.

“It is very hard to make a mark. I’ve learnt from my experience,” he says and adds that this time he is going to make sure that nothing goes wrong with his second shot at fame.

For more about Giju log on to www.beyonddreamz.com

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