Meet Blitzkrieg Dance Crew, India’s most loved mega crew. They will be representing India at Hip-hop International in August this year. The 23-member team hopes to plant the Indian flag high at the ultimate international event. While confidence and talent runs high, what is posing impediments to their flight is dearth of funds. However, with fire in their eyes Blitzkrieg Dance Crew’s Akskay Parkala and Ananya Sen answer an array of questions from NewsKaranataka and Karnataka Today‘s Allwyn Mascarenhas. 

NK: Privilege to have you guys! Thank you for this interview. Could you introduce yourselves?

Crew: It’s our privilege to have been given this opportunity, Allwyn. We are Blitzkrieg, recently crowned the best Mega Crew of India. It comprises students from various colleges belonging to Manipal University. The crew members are from different parts of India, as they are originally in Manipal for their respective academic purposes.

NK: I’d like to start off with a question on the history of this amazing group. How did this all begin?

Crew: Blitzkrieg dance crew was founded in 2007 by a few like-minded individuals who were very passionate about dancing. The first major breakthrough for the crew came in 2009 when it bagged the first position in the western group dance event at Revels, the cultural fest of MIT. Since then, there has been no looking back for the crew which later on won various laurels for itself and the University and today is widely known as the ‘Best mega crew in India’.
  Blitzkrieg Dance Crew: (clockwise from left) Bharat, Venkat, Sonya, Subbu, Sheetal, Ananya, Keshav, John, Sourabh,   Trianka, Debangana, Urbi, Devanshi, Priyanshi, Vyshnav, Akshay celebrating their win at the Indian Hip-Hop Dance Championship at Malad, Mumbai. 

NK: Why hip-hop and not any other form of dance?

Crew: Hip-Hop isn’t the only style we do. In fact, our crew members are experts in Bharatnatyam. We showcased one of our all-time hit Eastern sequences at Revels 2014, the cultural fest of Manipal Institute of Technology.

But yes, Hip-Hop is our forte. It has been the same since 2007. This is mainly because Hip-Hop is one of the most popular cultures today. Everyone enjoys Hip-Hop; be it dance or music. It has been on the rise since the 1970s and I believe it has reached its peaks.

NK: Why did you want to make a crew like this though? And for the others, what made them join a crew like this?

Crew(Akshay): As a fresher to Manipal Institute of Technology, I had decided before hand to join the dance club of the college, as I was always passionate about dance. On enquiry, whoever I approached had just one name on their mind and it was Blitzkrieg. Since I wasn’t a professional, I thought getting into the likes of Blitzkrieg would be difficult. So I always had a few other back-ups in my mind. Once I auditioned and thankfully got selected 2 years ago, it was all a smooth ride since then. From a group of strangers, we became a family.

NK: How many hours of rehearsals and training does it take to reach the level that you are today?

Crew: Our practice begins once the academic semester starts and goes on till it ends. On weekdays, we practice from 6 to 9 in the evening as we are occupied with classes during the day. On weekends, we get together and the practice goes on for the whole day, mostly until we are exhausted. So yes, to answer your question, it takes a lot of hard work and patience to reach the level we did.

NK: What inspired and influenced you?

Crew: We always had one goal every year, to win at our home – Revels, the cultural fest of MIT. In pursuit of that goal, we thrive and strive to do better than what we did yesterday.

This year, the goal was Indian Hip-Hop Dance championship. We worked hard and we won. The goal, now is the World Hip-Hop Dance Championship, which we aim to get success at and with all your support, we hope we do.

NK: What situations did you guys have to face when you first started, or even today? Were there any struggles along the way?

Crew: As college students, we face the usual academic problems. Managing dance and academics is the major one. At the end of the day, each and every crew member is a student. Keeping this in mind, we haven’t ventured into being professional dancers and we have maintained the crew to be just a group of individuals passionate about dance. As crew members, we help each other in every way possible. That’s how we came a long way from where we started.

NK: What are your biggest achievements till date?

Crew: The biggest achievement till date is winning the Indian Hip-Hop Dance Championship. However, we consider all the wins at our home- Revels, the biggest achievement. Nothing can beat the feeling of winning in front of your own crowd.
                   Blitzkrieg Dance Crew at the qualifiers for Indian Hip-Hop Dance Championship at NIT Suratkal

NK: Any future projects and ideas?

Crew: Yes, we have a lot of future projects (academic). As of dance, we have our usual college fests to attend during every semester. Apart from them, our only goal is to get better and better at what we do.

NK: Financial hurdles are a part of every successful campaign. I read about your crew arranging funds through a crowd funding campaign. Could you elaborate?

Crew: Blitzkrieg is participating in the competition under the contract of A Choreo Culture, the license holders of Hip-Hop International in India. They have been taking dance crews to Las Vegas since 2012. They have quoted an amount of Rs 54 lakhs to us, which we will have to pay by July 12. Our college, Manipal Institute of Technology has been very supportive of our participation and has already generously braced us financially by sponsoring more than half the quoted amount. However, we are still in dire need of funds, amounting to almost Rs 15 lakhs, that we need to raise as soon as possible. We have our own crowd-funding campaign, managed by Ketto.org, to raise as much as we can. Regardless of the problem, all of the crew members are back in Manipal mid-way through their vacation to start preparations for the World Championship to be conducted in the second week of August.

Blitzkrieg is a set of spearheaded and dedicated individuals who aim to make a mark for the country in the field of Hip-Hop Dance at the World Championship. We welcome who ever can contribute to make our dream come true. If you are willing to contribute, contact John Daniel (+91 8861-915799), the Team Leader.

NK: Finally, what would you say to encourage young and mature people to come out of their comfort zones and reach for their dreams like you are reaching for yours?

Crew: The only thing I would urge everyone is to find their passion. The environment around you doesn’t really matter. If you are passionate about something, you will find a way to excel at it. One more thing I have learnt over the past year or two is that, working hard without caring about the result will actually get you the result you want. Just put in your efforts to the maximum and the result will be waiting for you at the end of your journey.

NK: Thanks and All the best!