Hot Steppers

From the bylanes of Mumbai to the world stage, this dance crew is making all the right moves.

It’s an uncomfortably hot Friday in May. Suresh Mukund, the lead choreographer of the Mumbai-based dance crew, The Kings, pulls me aside to a quiet corner, away from the belligerence of the thumping sub-bass in the studio where we’re shooting, to fill me in on one of the many redemption stories of his crew members in the city’s underground hip-hop scene. “Most of us don’t come from privileged homes, but we’ve always believed in following our dreams, even if that meant going against our families’ wishes,” he says. Twelve years after dancing in public gardens, on terraces, and on a school playground in Maharashtra’s Palghar district, the group is set to bust sick moves and perform their gravity-defying stunts globally.