Dubai: Mangalorean Duo Dance Away to Victory at ‘Nach Baliye-4’
Daijiworld Media Network—Dubai (CN)
Dubai, Feb 6: The winners of dance contest ‘Nach Baliye-4’, organized by Star Middle East, which was held at Chi@The Lodge, near Al Nasir here, recently, both have strong ties to Mangalore.
Rithesh Rosario Penha, son of Richard and Natalia Penha, was born in Jeppu-Valencia, Mangalore on October 2, 1987, and is currently working at B K Gulf Dubai and DPS School, Jebel Ali.
Rithesh began dancing at the age of seven and has been a member of Ocean Kids dance group for the past 11 years. A fan of Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, he has won several dance contests including the first prize in Famad competition in 2007 and second place in ‘Nach Nach’ which was held at Indian High School, Dubai , January 15 this year.
Silvy Coutinho is the daughter of Latha and late Anthony Coutinho, and sister to six-year-old Deeksha. Born on October 8, 1987, Padil, Mangalore, is her place of residence though she is currently employed with Globelink Weststar Shipping LLC, Dubai.
Silvy began dancing at the age of four and has been performing for Ocean Kids group for the past eight years. Like her fiancé Rithesh, she too has won numerous prizes since she started dancing, including first prize at the state-level dance competition in 2002 in Mangalore.
At the Dubai Nach Baliye, the judges were Sarita Menon, senior marketing manager, Star Middle East, Kaiaj, choreographer and the director of ‘Your Dancesutra’, and Nithin, choreographer. Twelve couples competed in the contest.
The first round was the ‘Retro’ while the second was ‘Comedy’. Only three couples made it to the final round which had romance as its theme. Rithesh and Silvy emerged the winners and went on to perform in Mumbai at the ‘Nach Baliye’ show as the winners from Dubai.
Air tickets, transportation, food, and accommodation at the Royal Palm East Hotel for two days were also arranged for the duo.
Girish and Deevakar choreographed the dance they performed in Mumbai. In Mumbai, Silvy and Ritesh’s performance was well-appreciated by Arjun Rampal, Karishma Kapoor and Farah Khan, the judges of the Indian ‘Nach Baliye’. Rampal even presented his lucky bracelet to Silvy onstage.
Silvy and Rithesh have both performed with famous Malayalam actors and singers like Mohan Lal, Dilip, Kalabhavan Mani, Vijay Yesudas, Rimi Tomy, and Chitra Aiyar, as well as Hindi TV stars and Bollywood singers Hussain and Tina (winners of ‘Nach Baliye-2006’),Udit Narayan, Usha Uthup, Alka Yagnik,V asundara Das, Remo Fernandes, Abhay, Shreya Goshal, Preeti Jhangiani, Hariharan, and Jhony Lever, and Kannada and Konkani singers and actors including Wilfy Rebimbus, Henry D’Souza, Guru Kiran, Sudeep, Vijay Ragavendra, Ruchitha Prasad, Shivaraj Kumar, S P Balasubramaniam, and Claude.
Rithesh and Silvy are thankful to all their friends, Globelink Weststar Shipping LLC , all members of Ocean Kids dance group headed by Vinod Sequiera (Dubai and India), and especially Kajal and Saritha Menon, and all the teachers of DPS School, Jebel Ali.