Participants from the Northeast at the Dance India Dance Calcutta audition at Swabhumi. Picture by Bhubaneswarananda Halder

Calcutta, March 18: Children from the Northeast put their best dancing feet forward at the east zone selections of Dance India Dance Li’l Masters held in Calcutta and emerged the strongest block to make it to the final round in Mumbai of the dance talent hunt telecast on Zee TV.

As many as 11 of the 25 twinkle-toed kids selected by celebrity judges Geeta Kapur, Marzi Pestonji and Terrence Lewis on Friday were from the Northeast. Among the seven states, Assam stood out with nine representatives. The east zone of the contest extends till Jharkhand in the west and Nepal in the north.

The Northeast, especially Assam, has the title to defend with Guwahati’s Jeetumoni Kalita being the reigning champion. He was crowned in the contest’s first season by judge Mithun Chakraborty.

At the Swabhumi auditorium in east Calcutta, Anamika Nath wore a broad smile. Both her charges, daughter Jeevantika and her cousin Sanghamitra, had qualified for Mumbai.

“At the Guwahati auditions with about 4,000 participants, we had stood in queue from 6am and returned at midnight. It seems our labour has borne a slice of fruit. Now our hopes are pinned on the Mumbai selections,” said the resident of Odalbakra area in Guwahati.

On the Calcutta stage, the girls performed a Bharatanatyam duet and were asked by judge Pestonji what would happen if only one of them was selected.

“The girls argued hotly that both must be chosen,” she laughed.

Little Keirvi Devi, a Class III student of Nichol’s School in Chhatribari, Guwahati, pigeon-footed about in a colourful poloi that revealed only her toes. So lovingly did she perform her Manipuri classical routine that Geeta Ma (as she is known on the show) showered her with words of affection.

Eleven-year-old Babu G. Sangma made his state as well as his father Bibhishan G. Sangma proud. He was the only one to qualify from Meghalaya just as Krishnakanta Singh was the sole representative from Manipur.

Babu danced to the Bengali song Ekti gopon katha without understanding a word. “We chose it to show he is comfortable with songs in unknown languages too,” said Bibhishan, who is also Babu’s dance teacher.

The focus has now shifted to Mumbai where the final screening next month will decide the 36 to make it to Zee TV’s screen.

“We just reached Guwahati. Her teacher will start training her in Bollywood moves and a tantava routine from this evening,” Keirvi’s mother, T. Bhanisana Devi, said today.

Jeevantika’s teacher, Sanchita Deb Barman, will start fine-tuning her contemporary and hip hop dance techniques.

Babu’s father, hailing from a village near Tura in Garo hills, wants his son to learn more in Mumbai. “People of Meghalaya love dancing but we don’t have a good dance school here.”

Guwahati has made that leap, with Jeetumoni’s success sparking a craze for dance in the state. “So many people ask us how to train for dance contests,” said Jeetumoni’s uncle Manas Barman, who is his dance teacher.

Barman’s student, Arpita Datta, is one of the qualifiers from Guwahati.

Jeetumoni wants the crown to return to the Northeast but knows it is “in god’s hands”.

He has attained celebrity status not just in his Goshala neighbourhood in Guwahati but also in his Gurukul Grammar Senior Secondary School. He has flown to three countries for dance shows.

To produce another Jeetumoni, the Northeast will have 11 shots at the top 36.