The pursuit of his passion led Manish Chauhan to places he couldn’t have imagined. Movie director Leslie Shampaine, a former ballet dancer, showcases Chauhan’s path to securing a dance career in the documentary Call Me Dancer.
The April 25 screening, held at ATEC, featured a live dance by the Indian Student Association and a panel discussion featuring Shampaine at the end of the evening. The event was put together with the collaboration of ISA, the thinkIndia Foundation and the Crow Museum of Asian Art.
ISA started off the night with its live performance. Dressed in black and gold outfits, the group of six danced to a fusion of dance genres, incorporating flips, ribbons and group poses as they displayed how different dance styles and music genres could be mixed together. ISA’s dance officer Rishika Jindal talked about what her experience was like being part of the event.
“This was something I’ve never done in my entire life. Having the opportunity to collaborate with different organizations working on such high levels and actually opening for a movie. I can’t put these feelings into words,” Jindal said.
According to Jindal, dance helps bring back feelings of nostalgia. She remembers being part of dance workshops when she was little back in India. She joined ISA and became the dance officer shortly after moving to the U.S.
“It’s been a journey, a hectic one I’ll say, but it’s given me so much I cannot say anything bad about it,” Jindal said.
The story starts with Chauhan in Mumbai, India. Starting from simple beginnings, Chauhan overcomes obstacles to improve his dance, travel the world and get unique opportunities that further his goal of turning dance into his career.
“I was a professional ballet dancer. I could tell this story from the inside out where most dance films are told by people looking outside in. There’s a lot of negativity about the dance world or a profession in the arts but there’s a reason why so many people show passion for the arts. So why would you do something when the odds are so against you? I could tell a sense of a story within. So that’s what I wanted to show with the film,” Shampaine said.
Shampaine shared that the whole process of making the movie took about seven years, with five of those being for filming. She described how involved the team was with capturing the successes and failures throughout Chauhan’s journey.
“We had a wonderful team in India. I live in the United States and we couldn’t always be there but I was constantly talking to Manish the whole time we were filming. When we weren’t there we would have a team, but we did many trips,” Shampaine said.
The team filmed the movie in different ways, from using traditional cameras and setups to visit Chauhan’s house and studio, to relying on his self-tapes during the COVID pandemic and more intimate moments. Shampaine captured a variety of emotions and experiences Chauhan felt in his journey. One particular moment that stood out for Shampaine and Chauhan was when he arrived in New York for the first time to join a different dance company.
“He comes to New York and I just had my cell phone and I met him in the airport and he had to get to Brooklyn. He was in Newark, New Jersey and he said ‘OK, how do I get there?’ and I said ‘You got to figure it out yourself.’ And so he gets on the wrong train, he goes in the wrong direction, he gets really frustrated, and I’m like ‘figure it out.’ But when you’re making a film you’re trying not to influence anything. It’s a real experience,” Shampaine said.
Computer science sophomore Krishna Patel came to the event to cheer on her friend, who was performing in the dance earlier in the evening. She also reflected on her experience watching the film.
“I still can’t get out of that experience. I’m still thinking of every moment. It was really emotional. It was funny. It was out of the world,” Patel said.
