FOOTWORK

Having started small, 16 years ago with his dance school called The Dance Academy, Dharshan was also involved in presenting dance shows at various events. During this period, he was offered the opportunity to produce a fashion show at one of the leading hotels in Colombo.

Although it was a totally new experience for Dharshan, he took up the challenge to put together a show called 'Jungle stuff', which was quite fruitful. The show was specially choreographed with models performing actual dance steps on the ramp and thus the event was totally new to the crowds. Dharshan's creativity enabled him to win a contract for fashion shows at the hotel on a regular basis.

Getting into show biz with a team of models, sound and lighting technicians and set designers, paved the way to form a company that would handle such events called 'Footwork' for the simple reason that it was completely based on footwork. "With the experience I'd gained from early shows and my passion for ballroom dance, I decided that we should organise dance championship.

In 1993 we organised the first Footwork Dance Sport championship at the Hilton Colombo. In 1994, Footwork organised Discotheque '94 which was a massive event where all the top DJ's in the country performed and drew a crowd of 1200 people into the Galadari ballroom which was a big number by the standards of the time.

The Dancesport Championships have now become an annual event eagerly awaited by dancers and audiences. With Dharshan's ever increasing involvement in the international dance world as an adjudicator, the Footwork Championships have now evolved into International Dancesport Championship with around 10 other countries participating each year.

As a result, the Footwork name has become quite well-known in other countries especially in the Asian region. Their biggest triumph says Dharshan is to have brought down the reigning World Professional Latin American Champions Bryan Watson and Carmen for last year's championship.

Footwork also has its own team of DJs. Names that have now become famous in their own right all like Jithendra, Nichula, Pradeep (H2O), Ricky and Roshan were all part of Footwork DJs at one time or another. Dharshan says that unlike today, DJs back then took their training seriously and as a result were skilled performers.

Having always believed that dedication is the key to success; Footwork DJs have always followed in this tradition of keeping up with their training. This is why even today with the hundreds of DJs around, Footwork, with DJs Henry & Shakila currently at the helm, are still in great demand at parties and dances.

With a professional team consisting of set designers, lighting and sound engineers and tireless coordinators, Footwork is today geared to handle any type of event. With novel event concepts and creative ideas the events organised by them are claimed to be Unforgettable Experiences for both clients and audiences. The next project Footwork has lined up is to organise a Dancesport Championship in India.

Currently, Footwork is more involved in corporate events. They have over the years worked with companies like Lion Breweries, Dialog Telecom, IBM, ANCL, CSSL (Computer Society of Sri Lanka) and USAID to name a few. Their strength says Dharshan is the ability to handle an event from concept onwards till the final production.