Jitesh Jaggi
Appearances
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
The first time my mother saw me break dancing, she almost threw up. To make it less humiliating, I will narrate this incident in reverse. My mother runs into my room. There's a left foot shaped hole in my glass window. My body's upside down. I say to myself, this should be easy. I watch a hip hop dance video. She did not see a pretty sight.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
This was in 2009 in India where there was no break dancing. This modern American art was practiced there by puberty hit early adopters of internet. I remember staying up late in the night to chat with dancers in America to learn some techniques. Then back to practicing in my living room amidst a small audience of broken furniture and a horrified mother.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
This soon led me to connect with other eccentric losers in my city. And together, we started making a fool of ourselves in full public view. Contorting our bodies and suffering juvenile bald patches from head spins. True to tradition, we would practice on the sidewalks. startling morning joggers with James Brown screaming, get up off of that thing on the boom box.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
But I lacked the deep cultural understanding that American breakdancers had. I wanted to swim and all that was given to me was a petri dish. A friend suggested that the best way to learn something new is to teach it to someone else. So I landed volunteer work at this obscure little village called Banganwadi. The little village was Mumbai's largest dumping ground.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
I did not expect to even smile for the rest of the day, but 30 children were waiting eagerly to impress their new dance instructor. In the class, there was laughter and tumbling and flip-flops flying across the room. It was like I was witnessing the world congealing. Here are kids from the streets of Mumbai emulating kids from the streets of Brooklyn.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
They would tilt their hats to the side and ask me if they were hip hop enough. And I told them, you have more street cred than my middle class ass could ever dream of achieving. I stayed on. And after two years, decided to organize a dance show. choreographed on a nice rap song.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
And a week before the show, 12-year-old Sameer came up to me and said, teacher, we are memorizing the dance sequence not on the words of the song, but the sound of the words. And I thought, of course you are. See, the kids understood some English, but rap was too much for them. They couldn't distinguish one word from another. And then he made a suggestion that blew me away.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
He said, how about we break dance on a Bollywood song? The purist in me said, no. That is disrespectful. But the pragmatic choreographer in me, who had six days left for the show, said, why didn't I think of that? We changed everything. And that was the most under pressure fun we have ever had. Day of the performance.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
The audience has no clue that what they're about to witness has simply never existed before. Breakdance on Bollywood music, also in Bollywood costumes. The crowd was stunned. They whistled and clapped and sang along. In the audience, I thought to myself, this is either blasphemy or the genius of children.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
They took what was given to them, and instead of adapting to the art, we made the art adapt to our existing lifestyle. And in doing so, made it our own. This is what was missing in my own practice. And the kids put it neatly in perspective for me. From then on, we had regular practices on Bollywood songs. We wore whatever we were comfortable in.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
Today, here in America, when I see kids break dance, I think of the connection that they have with children across the world in the slums of Mumbai and invisible solidarity through street art. Thank you.