For more than 50 years, Joao Joaquim Rodriguez and his school, Cours de Danse, have been teaching Bombay to step out in style. Long before the Latin dance revival, Rodriguez, was showing eager aspirants how to do the cha cha, the mambo, the jive and every other style you can think of, working from a wooden-floored studio in Colaba’s Sethna House.
The excellent dance writer Suhani Singh just messaged to say Rodriguez waltzed off to the Great Ballroom in the Sky this morning. Here’s a piece she wrote about him in Time Out a few years ago. Click here.
To accompany him on his final journey, here’s the Rangoon Gymkhana Club Orchestra performing Melancholy Baby.
He and his former dance partner Stella (pictured in the above article) were magical on the dance floor! May he rest in peace. Wish I knew where she was.
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He taught my friend and I! I was a lot taller than him which made it all quite awkward. Definitely genuine old school!
He and his former dance partner Stella (pictured in the above article) were magical on the dance floor! May he rest in peace. Wish I knew where she was.