When curtains came down on Destiny 5: The Last Dance, one of India’s biggest all-style dance championships in Chennai a few days ago, standing tall on the stage were three dance crews from Kerala, that too from Thiruvananthapuram. While The Abrupt Family, the crew of Sree Chitra Thirunal College of Engineering (SCTCE) came first in the college category, Watch the Freakz, the team of College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET) came second. Another team from the capital city that shone was the crew from Polestar Studio, one of city’s prominent dance studios, which emerged runners up in junior category.

Overwhelmed by the success are the choreographers — Arun Kumar (Damu), who trained the SCTCE team, and Sidharth M, the choreographer of the CET crew and Polestar’s junior team. The best part is both of them are alumni of the colleges they trained.

“It was the last edition of Destiny and we couldn’t have asked for more,” says Arun, while Sidharth is elated about having trained two teams that dazzled on the stage.

Destiny, one of the most filtered dance competitions in India, as per the two, has competitions in multiple categories — Solo, Duo, Trio, All Girls, Sub-Junior, Junior, College and Professional. Semi finalists are chosen after video auditions. They battle it out for a place in the finals. The winners are chosen by international judges. This year’s panel had renowned choreographers Anthony Lee and Kevin John.

“The college category had 20 teams in the semi finals from which seven of us made it to the finals, whereas in the junior category, nine were chosen for the finals from among 20 semi finalists,” Sidharth says, adding that last year Watch the Freakz had come fourth in the finals. The Abrupt Family had participated in Destiny in 2023.

It was yet another win for The Abrupt Family, who danced to the energetic track, ‘Aagasam’ from Soorarai Pottru. The team has already presented it on 25 stages. “Majority of them were competitions in colleges. We got 17 first prizes and five second prizes before the win at Destiny. We were among the top 5 at the Indian Dance Championships held at Bengaluru as well,” says Anagha DS, a member of the crew.

The rock-folk song, which is more like an anthem, is an adaptation of Thaikkudam Bridge’s song ‘Urumbu’ by the film’s composer GV Prakash Kumar. The 21-member team, dressed in school uniform in cream-green combo, narrated how a group of children cheer up their academically-weak friend. “I wanted innocence and happiness in the theme and that’s how I arrived at the concept of school children. Working on it was special. We stuck to open style choreography, throwing in steps of Indian folk and street dance into the routine,” says Arun, making special note of the dancers who helped him with the routine — Afthab Hussain, Divin Dileep, Chainthanya S, Aravind Jyothi, Sourav S, and Diya Pradeep.

Arun adds that the crew has been active in the dance circuit for the past four years. “The college has had a dance crew even before that, known by different names at different points of time. But it was almost dissolved during the pandemic. In 2022, they contacted me with hopes of reviving it. The decision was so abrupt that we named the crew, The Abrupt Family,” says Arun, who balances his passion for dance with his job as lead business analyst and junior product owner for HealthEdge.

Meanwhile Watch the Freakz has been around for 13 years and Sidharth, who has been a freelance choreographer for over a decade, has been their choreographer since 2022. He recalls that the breakthrough was their dance routines ‘Journey’ and ‘Padayathra’ going viral on social media.

“I have arrived at my own style as a choreographer, which I used in both the performances. Watch the Freakz’s act named Simulation had 18 dancers and the choreo conveyed the idea that we all are part of a system and cannot be separated from it. The competition was extremely tough as all the teams in the finals were equally good. Polestar’s presentation was about how a group stands by someone on the autism spectrum,” says Sidharth, adding that the 15 members of Polestar’s junior crew are among those who have been training at the studio for many years now. He makes note of Raj and Hari who assisted him in the choreography.

Polestar has several national and international wins to its credit and Sidharth joined the studio two years ago. “Thiruvananthapuram has the most number of dance crews in the State. We have a lot of freelance dancers and that speaks for the umpteen number of dance studios here,” he adds.

Meanwhile, other teams from Kerala that participated in Destiny 5 were DOT25 (TKM College of Engineering), Bigfoot Dance Arena, Groove the Moves, XOXO Crew and Polestar’s all girls’ crew.

“There has been an exponential growth in the dance scene in Kerala, with many talented dancers making it to big stages. And we have amazing dancers who are pushing the community as a whole,” Arun adds.