It Takes Two

Dancing might be poetry in motion, but there’s a science to it. Pole dancer Aarifa Bhinderwala’s agile spins and inversions defy gravity, and Odissi dancer Ranjana Dave elevates simple physics to keep her lower body firmly grounded while her torso is fluid and snake-like. Sadaf Shaikh spends an afternoon watching how the two women’s mutual intuition for movement results in a beautiful crossing over of forms and synchronicity

- Sadaf Shaikh

The laws of Internet Browsing Behaviour dictate that each human spends a preordained amount of time scouring social media for topics that specifically interest them. This may be beauty for a few, fashion for others, while some users veer towards fitness-related content. My Instagram kryptonite happens to be dance. When I was younger, I would consume So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing with the Stars with the same zest that my grandmother reserved for the K-serials. Later, in the confines of my room, I would try to mimic the techniques I had watched, and convince myself that my execution was excellent. I’d think that I was pirouetting gracefully, but in reality I was barely managing to not pass out from the twirling.

I am jolted out of this childhood reverie as my cab comes to a screeching halt outside The Space, a boutique studio in Juhu which regularly holds fitness and lifestyle classes. Aarifa Bhinderwala and Ranjana Dave, who have volunteered to submit to our experiment in locomotion, are engaged in conversation as they warm up together. The former, a maverick pole dancer, and the latter, a trained Odissi practitioner, have agreed to swap roles for a day to ascertain how effectively the body of a dancer can adapt to an unfamiliar form. I may appear calm on the outside, but I can feel the dance-loving childhood version of me stirring with excitement at the prospect of an eventful day.