Dancing with the Diaspora

Norwegian group Quick Style tell Tatler why they're rooted in diversity and how they retain their distinctive flair

-  Aaina Bhargava

A fro-trap music blares from a studio space in an industrial building near central Oslo. It stops abruptly and switches to early 2000s Punjabi hit Nachenge Saari Raat by the late British-Indian singer Tarsame Singh Saini, aka Taz Stereo Nation, before transitioning into Norwegian R&B-pop. Loud chattering and exclamations erupt periodically throughout this musical melange, as 13 members of Norwegian dance crew Quick Style break out into spontaneous choreography. With tastes in music as varied as their backgrounds, when they are in a room together, a festive atmosphere is always a given.

And there has been much to celebrate since the group was formed in 2004. They won Norske Talenter, aka Norway’s Got Talent, participated in reality show World of Dance, toured the world, opened a dance studio in Chengdu and choreographed dance numbers—Boys with Luv, Blood Sweat and Tears and Save Me—for K-pop megaband BTS. But none of those gigs gave Quick Style the level of global recognition they’ve experienced since a video of their performance at co-founder Suleman Malik’s wedding went viral this past summer.

“We didn’t do it with the intention [that it might] go viral; it just happened,” says Bilal Malik, Suleman’s twin brother and another co-founder. “When something goes viral, you don’t control it; it’s the people who control it.”