Dinosaurs meet Bollywood

The Australian Museum hosts a night of extravagant dancing, laughing and henna tattoos

BY LeNA PeACOCK

The word Bollywood is enough to make most people’s ears prick up, but combine it with dinosaur bones, a laughter workshop and a silent disco, and surely everyone’s attention has been captured. Every Tuesday night in summer, the Australian Museum hosts an event called Jurassic Lounge. On Tuesday 19th March, in partnership with Parramasala, they held a Bollywood-themed event. And what an interesting Tuesday night it was.

As guests walked through the door on Tuesday night they were greeted with a bindi and a program of events. To get into the spirit of the evening, guests made paper garlands in the craft section. It was a little bit like being back in kindy, but guests were allowed to do it with a glass of wine. After cutting out discs of bright pink and orange paper, they threaded a needle through them, and ta da, they had colourful garlands to wear for the night.

One of the best parts of the night by far, was the Bollywood dance lesson. Two dancers from Natraj Dance Studios: Prafulla Parida and Shauna Crick, broke down some Bollywood moves and showed us how it was done.

The infectious sounds of Halkat Jawani filled the Atrium, and soon a large crowd had gathered around, flailing their arms and legs in all directions, some with more coordination than others. You certainly couldn’t fault the level of enthusiasm of the crowd. The second dance lesson of the evening was Bollywood Hip Hop with the songs Dus Bahane mixed with I Hate Luv Stories

Indian Link chatted with Prafulla Parida, a performer, choreographer and the Bollywood dance teacher of the night. Originally from Mumbai, Prafulla moved to Sydney in 2011, and has enjoyed sharing his love of Bollywood dance down under ever since. “I started my career as a back up dancer,” Prafulla, a dancer on the successful show The Merchants of Bollywood, told us. “My first choreography experience was as an Assistant Choreographer to Rajiv Surti in 2005 on the film Baabul. However, I have been dancing since I was seven and started my career in the Bollywood film industry in 2004”.

Prafulla says that choreographing for Bollywood dance comes easily to him, as he “understands the meaning of the songs, and can interpret the moves accordingly”.

And his favourite Bollywood movie? “Salman Khan’s Khamoshi!”

We just had to ask Prafulla for his top tip to dance like a Bollywood pro.

“Have an understanding of the music,” he replied. “I especially enjoy teaching my students the meaning behind the story on the songs and the different dance forms”.

Aside from the dancing, there was also a live band called Love Parade, a Laughter Workshop (which yes, had us all laughing), and DJ Ravi Kambhoj played us some Bollywood tunes. Ravi started off djing in clubs in Dheli and New Zealand. “Kishore Kumar, Mohmammed Rafi, Asha

The infectious sounds of Halkat Jawani filled the Atrium, and soon a large crowd had gathered around, flailing their arms and legs in all directions

Bhosle, and R.D. Burman” are his favourite singers. On the night Ravi played mainly Bollywood with a mix of Punjabi Bhangra, Indian house and new age music.

The Raj Tent was all about playing music videos of Bollywood songs, and creating henna tattoos, and was another popular part of the night. There were examples of henna designs printed out to follow, and tubes of henna on tables. It was up to guests to create the artworks on each other’s bodies, and luckily a friend with a steady hand created a design of flowers and swirls on our hands. Next, it was time to head to the Bollywood photobooth for some happy snaps. mR H A b I b, I NTERNATIONAL Af RI c AN sp IRIT uAL HEALER AND cLAIRvOyANT therefore I strongly believe that I can solve your problems in the quickest way. Are you suffering from influence, blockage, unknown diseases or unhappy situations that you cannot get out of it. If so, then do not hesitate to contact me Mr Habib who can solve all of your problems within 7 nights especially Sexual problems, or Bad luck Business matters, exams, Court cases, Unhappy marriages or Relationship problem and many more.

It was quite amusing to see Indian inspired garlands all over the museum, including around exhibits of dinosaur bones and taxidermy koalas. It was a strange blend of Australia meets Bollywood, but we’re sure the koalas didn’t mind.

We bumped into Indian Link’s Facebook competition winner of a double pass to the event, Niti Singh, who said that she had a fun night. And we did too.

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