Jamshedpur, Jan. 15: Breaking away from Salsa and other contemporary dances, steel city residents witnessed a dance programme ?with a difference? organised at the Community Development and Social Welfare Centre, Sonari this evening.

Organised by cultural and social organisation Nehru Bal Vikas Sangh, in association with CDSW department of Tata Steel, the dance competition was organised to promote an interest in classical and semi-classical music and dance among the youths.

J.S. Kumar, general secretary of Nehru Bal Vikas Kendra, said: ?Today, the younger generation is gradually loosing interest in old songs and music. Our main aim is to revive this losing interest and make students aware of their rich traditions.? And so it was bhartanatyam, kathak, a little bit of rock-and-roll and twists, too ? all this to the tunes of what is known as the golden oldies, or old Bollywood numbers, and classics.

From the classical Madhuban mein Radhika naache to foot-tapping numbers like Eena meena deeka and Mera naam chin chin choo or the sensuous Piya tu, about 20-odd students from six schools across the steel city matched steps at the show.

The show, which kicked off during the first week of January, saw about 65 students from 16 schools compete for the top honours during a challenging audition round. ?The auditions were held at the Bal Vihar in Sonari, and we had seen to it that only those students with sound knowledge of music or any classical dance form would get selected,? added Kumar.

The competition was divided into four categories. ?Every year, our organisation conducts programmes at the inter-school level. This, however, is the first year that we decided to conduct such a show ? a dance show based on filmi songs ? as children these days have lost interest in our traditiona,? Kumar reiterated. The participating students were trained by dance teachers from Nehru Bal Vikas Sangh and Sangeet Kala Kendra, another cultural organisation.

?Some participants had worked hard to perfectly perform that one step, which would have made the song famous and immortalised it,? observed Kumar. The participants were even judged by several Jamshedpur-based music experts and Sacred Heart won the overall award.