Dance, where every posture is an opportunity for the dancer to look up to Heaven, is one of the purest forms of divine art. Being an art which fathoms and reflects an array of human emotions, dance also portrays the cultural aspects of any civilization. ‘GIIS Jhankaar 2009 - Dancing like Stars’, was a golden platform given to the students of GIIS to showcase their passion and talent for dance.

After the semi final rounds, the final and mega finals were held at Balestier Campus on 23rd of October,’09.

The three categories in the event were -

Sub Junior : for classes 1 - 4
Junior : for classes 5 - 8
Senior : for classes 9 - 12

Participants performed in the solo and group categories and in the solo category we had dances for classical, contemporary and folk.

Each performance was unique indeed. The grandeur of the traditional classical performances like Bharat Natyam, Odissi, Kathak, beholding diverse cultures of India was soul-touching. The energetic folk dances like Bhangra, Garba, Koli projecting the essence of Indian traditional community life were equally appealing. And finally invigorating dances like Hip - Hop, Jazz, Salsa, Pop under Contemporary category set everyone’s feet tapping and hands clapping. Ravishing costumes were perfect matches to the respective performances. Each performance, marked with confidence, grace and perfect synchrony demanded a thunderous applause.

Ms. Jiva , Ms Rajan and Ms. Sweety, eminent figures in the world of dance, were the honourable judges for the event and were felicitated by Mr. Winston Gomez ,Principal of the Balestier Campus. Winnners for all categories were declared by Ms. Melissa Maria, Vice Principal, Balestier Campus. Honours for the different categories were done by Mr.Atul Temurnikar, Chairman, Mr. Kaustabh Bodhankar, Country Director, Dr. Anju Aditya, Dean of Academics and the Principals Mr. Rao and Mr. Mudgal of the GIIS campuses.

Winners and runners up for the Finals were :

WINNERS Sub Junior category :

Solo Classical - Surabhi Bansal (BL)
Solo Contemporary - Chatanya Kumar (BL)
Solo Folk - B.N. Tejasri (BL)
Group Folk - Ananya Narendranath, Archana Gopakumar, Sookthi Bhat, Nagavati Tejasri, Shubhadha Viswandla, Bindu Shree Muddam, Surabhi Bansal, Anushika Dubey (BL).

Runner up Sub Junior :

Solo Classical - Swetha Rajagopalan (BL)
Solo Contemporary - Niharika Nair (QT)
Solo Folk - Akshata C Modak (BL)
                  - Asmita Raja (BL)
Group Folk - Asmita Raja, Arpita Raja, Harini Balachandran, Sweatha Anantalingam, Sreya Mahendran, Rachana Narayanan, Aditi Bhat, Swati Meenatchi (BL).

WINNERS Juniors category :

Solo Classical - Ankitha Rajaram (QT)
Solo Contemporary - Janak Prakash (EC)
Solo Folk - Uma Kalyani (QT)
Group Folk - Manvi Motiani, Mridula Jonnalagadda, Shyna Kher, Swarnima Sircar, Soumya Gosain, Tejaswi Shitole, Keerttana Sankaran (EC)

Runner up Juniors :

Solo Classical - Malavika Nair (QT)
                          - Rupa Venkatesan (QT)

Solo Contemporary - Fakruddin Dahodwala (QT)
                                    - Preetish Acharya (QT)

Solo Folk - Lakshmi Pradeep (QT)

Group Folk - Vansh Kapoor, Vallamkonda Nagamani Teja, Janak Prakash, Abhishek Selvakumar, Mahira Bhatia, Vallamkonda Nagamani, Lakitha, Mithali Amin, Arunima Sircar (EC).

WINNERS Seniors category :

Solo Classical - Ananya Das (QT)
Solo Contemporary - Brian (QT)
Solo Folk - Ajay Maran (QT)
Group Folk - Kimaya Tushar Malwade, Ananya Gupta, Vaishnavi Ganesh, Rakshita Harish (EC).

Runner up Seniors:

Solo Classical -Gauri Vaidya (EC)
Solo Contemporary - Shounak Pande (EC)
Solo Folk - Aishwarya Ghosalkar (QT)
Group Folk - Denise D’Souza, Gauri Vaidya, Samyukta Ravichyandrababu, Kritika Pandey Joshi (EC).

The Mega Finals followed to find the most versatile dancer among the winners from the 3 sub categories of the solo competition. The criteria for this section was dancing to the tune of a medley of the 3 genres of music ,classical, contemporary and folk.

Once again, displaying perfect synchrony and grace, each performer danced to perfection.

Song by Rachana Narayanan, Balestier Campus (runner up of Global Indian Idol) and dance performances by Advaita, Queenstown and Shivangi, East Coast during the course of the event, require special mention.

The chief guest Ms Marinaz Jumabhoy was introduced by Ms Rekha Varghese, Primary coordinator, Balestier and she did the honours of giving away the prizes to the winners of the mega final round.

The most versatile dancers and winners of the mega final round were :

Sub Junior - Surabhi Bansal (BL)
Junior - Janak Prakash (EC)
Senior - Ajay Maran (QT)

Thus, rhythm resonated across the entire auditorium all day long. It was heavenly indeed. It was an experience and testimony that music does indeed open the doors to Heaven.