Yes, for real. I’m not making this up.
Okay, the title sounds a little more glamorous than the situation was in reality– but this really happened. At the time, I was sort of embarrassed about how awkward and unsynchronized we look in the video (see below), and I refused to show anybody. But alas, the time has come for me to share this story.
This was about five or six years ago, in the small cozy town of Mission, BC, Canada. I was in high school at the time, as were the other dancers at Can Dance Studio. While we (the dancers) were stretching at the beginning of class, our dance teacher told us that someone has contacted the studio looking for dancers to hire for a music video.
They were looking for twenty or thirty dancers for a big group number, according to the phone call. There will be a choreographer and they would teach us the dance piece, they had said. They would provide costumes, makeup, and hairstyling. It was a paid job. They would be filming in a couple weeks, so they wanted to meet and have rehearsal before then.
That sounds cool, a few of us said. Which style of dance is it?
Bollywood.
Bollywood? Our studio didn’t offer Bollywood dance classes. None of us had ever tried this type of dance before. Although Canada has a lot of immigrants, with a particularly prominent Punjabi population in Mission, none of us looked remotely Indian. Apparently that didn’t matter, and they really wanted a huge group of us dancers to be in their music video.
Only a handful of us were interested, and finally only three of us agreed to do it. Well, three is better than nothing. Somehow I became the one responsible for contacting the guy who had called the studio. He told me that he wanted me to come to his house so we could discuss the job.
Ummm. What? Alarm signals went off in my head. To meet at his house? This could very easily have been a scam, but my mom and I decided it was safe to go check it out together. If it got weird, we could just leave.
It turned out to be completely safe, not sketchy or creepy at all. The guy we were meeting turned out to be a local singer producing a low-budget video. And the address he gave us really was his personal home! His kids were running around playing, his wife was cooking in the kitchen, and we sat in the living room to talk. He handed me a DVD and told me to watch it, and that he wanted us to do something like the dance number in the video.
What about the choreographer? I asked. When will they teach us the choreography?
Apparently, there had been some sort of miscommunication, and there would be no choreographer. Suddenly I was the choreographer! (This, alone, should strike you as hilarious. I was completely unqualified for this job.)
Well, how hard can it be? I thought. I had choreographed a tap dance routine for the kids I was teaching at the studio, and I had choreographed routines for myself from time to time.
So, I watched the video a bunch of times, copied some moves, added my own little twist, and put it together in counts of eight. We briefly rehearsed at our empty dance studio on the weekend, hoping someone would help us rehearse and improve our routine before doing it in front of the camera.
The next weekend, that day of filming was one of those days where you have no idea what’s going on, you just kind of go with the flow until you realize how unusual your situation is. I will point out that from this point on in the story, my friends and I were a visible minority in this East Indian “world” of Bollywood that we stepped into (it really felt like another world considering how clueless we were in the traditions, the clothing, and the language).
We started out at a hair salon owned by a friend or relative of the singer. There, we were ushered into the back room and asked to put on colourful flowy suits and matching glittery earrings. The ladies at the salon did our makeup, including putting something between our eyes which might be called a bindi (I’m not really sure, sorry if I’m using the wrong word).
Then we drove off to a very fancy, enormous house in Abbotsford (neighbouring city to Mission). Already on-site were the singer and the beautiful young girl who would be co-starring in his music video. And here we found out a fun fact that is quintessentially Canadian: This actress did not speak a word of Punjabi. Born and raised in Canada, she had been taught to lip sync the words to this song (I don’t even think it was her voice singing on the recording, if I remember correctly).
The cameraman set up the shot and positioned us on a hill in front of the house, in the background of the actress. At this point, our shoes became a problem. We were wearing regular old sneakers, which clashed horribly with our costumes. It was a surprisingly cold day, and the grass was still wet with dew, so we politely refused to dance barefoot. As a clever solution, they asked us to dance in the garden, right behind the shrubs and bushes so that our feet would be hidden.
I am going to point this out before anyone else does– WE WERE NOT GOOD. We kind of sucked. We had barely rehearsed, we were not synchronized, we were not in our element of dance styles, and all in all, it was not our finest dance moment. Mind you, this is not a critique of the music video in itself, as I am not an expert, and am in no position to judge a Bollywood music video. There are some pretty nice shots of Vancouver in the video, and the melody is really catchy.
Before we went home, we somehow almost didn’t get paid– but considering all our choreography initiative, and the time we had taken out of our weekend to partake in this production, my mom insisted that we deserved to earn at least something. So, after some negotiation, we were paid $100– altogether. That makes about $33 for each of us. Maybe it’s not a lot, but by definition, I was a “professional dancer!” I’m practically a movie star!
We sort of lost contact with the singer after that, but somehow, we found the music video posted on YouTube. It apparently aired on the Punjabi TV channels as well. It was a bit of a bewildering experience, but it was definitely a lot of fun. It was a really unique opportunity to not only cross cultures like this, but also experience a day in the entertainment industry. I consider myself lucky to have been a part of this!
So, without further ado, here is the Bollywood music video we have all been waiting for. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
(See if you can spot me. I’ll give you a hint; I’m the one in the green)
The Life of All Sorts 