DID l’il Masters 3 is back to entertain viewers with their brilliant performances. From urban dance to contortions to B-boying, the talent quotient this year is very high and hence, selecting the top 16 from lakhs of participants was not easy. SANGEETA YADAV travels to Mumbai to find out why some of the best dancers got eliminated and what makes this season sab dances ka baap
Dance India Dance l’il Master 3 is back. With a highest TVT of 11099, this reality show has become the most viewed programme. Over the last few years, the dancing standard in the show has risen and so have the expectations from the 16 dancers who will fight it out for the top position this year.
With a tagline of Bachchagiri, the contestants this year come from varied backgrounds. Being able to dance in all forms is what DID l’il Masters is all about. “I was amazed to see the performance of a group of dancers who came to the auditions from Chambal. They were so brilliant that I almost dropped my pen and watched them in awe. They had picked up all moves by watching TV. Their finesse was mind-boggling. Unfortunately, they couldn’t go to the next round because they didn’t know dance forms like jazz, salsa and flamenco,” master Ahmed Khan, one of the judges, tells you. There were many like the Chambal gang who couldn’t make it to the top 16 due to lack of knowledge of dance forms. Some 12-year-olds despite being brilliant had to be rejected because of their height criterion which is not more than 5’7. This was because this is a l’il masters show. Because of their height, they looked older.
“We feel sad that children with such high dancing calibre couldn’t make it because of lack of training. We have kept them on stand-by but it’s uncertain whether they will get a second chance. We call the teacher and tell them that there are over a lakh participants and their student needs to make it to the 1,000 list. For this, they have to teach the child all the dance forms. That’s all we can do — advise them,” Ahmed says.
As has been the format set in previous seasons, this season too, it will be the judges who will throw a challenge to the skippers — the dance masters — assigned to the four groups with four dancers each. Each dancer will have to perform on the form given.
This can be a group challenge or an individual one. From here on, the judges will either send the performer to the elimination zone or to the next level. To keep the competition free from any vulgarity, the judges have ensured that any suggestive moves by the participant will lead to negative marking.
“We never entertain vulgar dancing. There was one pretty girl who danced on Chikni chameli. It was more vulgar than the original dance. We called the parents and asked them if ‘aapko dekhke achchha lagta hai ki aapki beti vulgar dance ker rahi hai’IJ Who were they trying to impressIJ,” master Geeta Kapoor, another judge, says.
Each participant will be judged by Ahmed and Kapoor not only on the way they have performed a dance form but also on whether they know all the dance forms — Indian and international ones.
“After each performance, we asked them if they could tell us the dance form just performed. Most said: ‘Pata nahi, sir ne seekhaya thha’. But there are some who give us an answer we are looking for — “I started with contemporary, went on to hip hop, contemporary, then B-boying to contortion and finished with Bollywood.
“Then there was a participant who is from Pune and did a new hip hop version. When I asked him what dance form it was he said urban dance. He travels 80 km just to learn dancing. His dedication to his passion is amazing. These children are truly dancing ke baap,” Ahmed says.
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