Children take part at the dance competition at Lioness Club. Pictures by Manik Bose

Ranchi, June 1: They are the little miss twinkle toes and the masters of beats of the present generation, who gathered at the Ranchi Club for a dance competition organised by Ranchi Lioness Club.

The club, with a pan-India presence, organised a solo dance meet for children under-16 years, where more than 50 children participated.

The event was divided into categories according to the age of individual performers.

The first group comprised children between five and seven, the second of slightly older kids, between eight and 10, while the next group was of pre-teens or “tweens” as they are fashionably called (11-13 years) and finally the teenagers (14-16years). The first prize winners of the four categories were Bulbul, Anoushka, Aarti and Chetna Das, respectively.

The meet was open to children who had received a degree of training in dance. Students of Pazeb, Deepanjali Dance Group and Dharitri Kala Kendra participated in large numbers.

One of the organisers, Poonam Anand, explained: “During the holidays there are several art and performing art camps held across the city. We felt that this was the right time to hold such a meet. This is not a test or a competition really, but more a platform to showcase what they (children) have learnt so far.”

President of the Lioness Club, Vimla Bansal, added to Anand’s explanation and made it clear that this show’s best feature is that it is “open to all”. “Unlike our other events such as the Savan Queen, plantation drives and baby shows, this show is not members-only. We are rather happy that we made it open-for-all as the response was overwhelming and we received entries up to the last moment.”

The show’s inaugural performance was by Archie Sen, the winner of the 31st National Learn to Live Together Concert that was held in Dehra Dun recently. Archie, a student of Class VIII of JVM, Shyamali, represented Jharkhand at the concert where participants from 25 states had come. She, however, was not participating in the meet.

“I have been training as a classical dancer for the past 10 years. I plan to take up dancing as a career later,” said Chetna Das, winner of the National DAV Youth Festival for the past three years. At today’s event she was representing her school, DAV, Bariatu.

The judges were Malobika Mukherjee and Anita Singh. “We basically checked out the expressions, costumes and the grace of all participants. Also, the song selection will play a role as this is a solo competition,” said Malabika.