Breaking gender norms with dance-Fedrick Jayasheelan

Dance has many forms, and yet it is formless. At times I wonder why society divides such a beautiful passion as dancing into binary gender norms. For a dancer, dance is what they worship which is independent of gender. Such a wonderful dancer from Bangalore is, Fedrick Jayasheelan, who is breaking all the barriers of conventional gender norms. Fedrick is one of the few male dancers in India, who performs the art of belly dancing. Whenever we heard the word belly dancing, we visualize a girl in a beautiful Arabic dress dancing gracefully. But Fedrick's energetic and graceful dance moves changes everything and mesmerizes us till the end. Frederick during his performance When we asked him, what and who inspired him to become a belly dancer; Fedrick quoted, “Dance is so much to me! Dance and movement give me the foundation for my wellbeing. I have learned so much through dance and dancing. It feels like it is always within me, whatever I do. And it helps me to get through difficult times and to make a connection between my body and my mind. Dance gives me freedom because I can decide what steps to take and how to move on. It´s my way to find my balance. Likewise, I started learning all the dance forms in which I was interested in. Later, when I used to watch belly dancing shows on TV and YouTube I started liking it and found out that even men are into belly dancing and glad to know their passion and dedication. Also, I was quite surprised by people's acceptance of a new form of dance. Gradually, I started developing interest and learning belly dance on my own just by mere observation and watching the techniques through videos. I used to practice it in my leisure time and day by day I was improving. Even today, my passion for dancing hasn't come down. All these factors inspired me to be a belly dancer.”   Recalling his childhood, Fedrick said, “During my childhood, if someone would have asked what I wanted to be, I would have said a dancer. It wasn’t meant to be. I still wouldn’t have done it. I was five years old when I participated in a few dance performances. A few years later, I started performing in the annual cultural day at school and many dance competitions and had won quite a few prizes. I also got a chance to perform in public functions and stage performance during Ganesha festivals and similar sort of events. When it comes to bullying and harassment, I've never faced such odds but yeah my family members and other relatives constantly put me down for being a dancer and kept on demotivating but above all this I've got my lovely mother whose support is always with me, she is my true inspiration and the strength I get through it is much bigger than anything.” Today, Fedrick is one of the top 10 Zumba instructors in the city and works in collaboration with more than 50 plus fitness centers all around the city. When asked about his views on society's hypocritical standards of masculinity, he said, “Nearly 99 percent of first-generation gurus and dancers were male. This is a parallel development in the society, where male and female are treated equally important. Whereas solo male dancers are endangered species. After so much of development in the lifestyle and the perspective of the people things have gradually upgraded, all fields are wide open for me. People no more care about gender, in fact, most of the trainers are men now. Well, masculinity is a major part and it also makes you unique especially in belly dancing because this form is a mixture of body movement, expression and expressing through your body to add an extra spice we need to keep up that masculine moves.”   When asked him about his thoughts on ‘Dance has no gender’, he quoted, “When relating dance to gender theories, one is able to see dance from a more open-minded view when it comes to gender. One can see that gender does not have to be an issue in dance, even though it always seems to be. Dance educators can learn from these theories how to teach dance in a gender-neutral way, and teach their students that males and females can be dancers and that males do not have to play masculine roles or execute masculine movements, and females do not have to play feminine roles or execute feminine movements. It is important for dance teachers to understand this so that they can make their students understand.”   When we asked him about his future plans, Fedrick said, “As of now I don't have any major plans for my future; but yes I’m looking forward to establishing my own dance academy and also I would love to enhance my skills in various other forms of dance. My goal is to be a top 1 belly dancer in Karnataka by this year-end”, he concluded. We wish, him all the best for his future plans. To know more such interesting personalities, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Download our magazine Spunky Indian for exclusive stories.