Skirts swirl, coy smiles widen in happy anticipation of the final moves. The music builds, feet skip into a quick-quick slow step and into the final sweep... another Wednesday evening is stepping up the magic.

The childish origami projects that adorn the walls are at strange variance to the elegant footwork of the Viennese waltz. The music changes to rock-nroll, then to a Passa Doble rhythm. Feet move, lives change... The common figure through the Wednesday evenings of the 1960s, and '70s and the Monday-Thursday classes at a South Mumbai school has only grown in elegance from the days when she first danced as a three-yearold. Salome Roy Kapur carries on her parents' legacy as dancers par excellence in ways that perhaps even she does not fathom.

Her father Sam Aaron was a man who followed his dream. The accountant came to India from Burma before World War 11, went to England and became the highest qualified dance teacher in India, and the only examiner in India and then Ceylon for the Imperial Dance Masters Association and the Federal Association of Teachers of Dancing, Australia.

Her mother Ruby went to learn dancing from him, they fell in love; the Aarons went on to team up as partners in life and on the dance flour. They set up school first in Parel, then in Colaba. "My father danced from 1941 right upto about three months before he passed away in 2001. Despite all his ailments, he would sit at my classes, assist me, advise my students. He wanted to he active.

"The atmosphere at home was completely dance-oriented, pupils would come in every halt-hour from nine am to 8:30 pm. "I started dancing early. I showed promise at three." Her father took the courageous decision to allow her to be home-schooled after std II. Salome had excellent tutors in academics, but the whole system was concentrated on the arts.

She learnt Odissi, Bharatnatyam, the violin, the piano, singing, Kathak and ballet. "I never faced the trauma of an examination," she recalls, happily. "But I could sit for hours with general knowledge books. Even today, if you asked me to choose between jewellery and a book, I'd take a book any time." At the age of 15, she started learning yoga.

"It changed my complete being. I remember going on my usual morning walk to the Gateway of India and sticking my tongue out at the sun to get the rays into my system. I never stopped to think of what people would think and I still stick my tongue out at the sun." Her days were peopled with tutors who came in with various disciplines - even Sanskrit and some Urdu. "It was lovely," Salome sighs, "I wouldn't have wanted it any other way."

Stepping Quicker
She began performing with her brother at the age of six. "We were called 'Salome & Edwin', and we did the rock and roll at functions - at all the Navjyots, all the big balls at the Taj, and at the Greens (where the new Taj now stands)." In 1965, the 16-yearold Salome made her film debut in a parallel role in 'Tu Hi Meri Zindagi . She also played the princess in 'Nateera', an MGM film shot in India for TV in 1967. "1 never really made it in films," she muses, nonchalantly, "Perhaps I didn't have the will." In 1968, as she shopped at the Smart & Hollywood store, Sila Spencer, "a pioneer in fashion", asked if she would like to model. She was soon walking the ramp with the likes of Shobhaa De, Zeenat Aman and Caroline King. "I think being a dancer made it easier," she says, modestly.

She recalls working with Jeannie Naoroji, "a wonderful person, who always got the best out of you." In her 10 years as a model, Salome did campaigns and photographic work for Century, Bajaj, Bombay Dyeing, Tatas, Binny, Crompton Greaves, and Vimal. That decade also saw her moving into choreography, a calling to which she had first responded many years before. "When I was 14, my father sent me to fill in for him as choreographer when he developed a back problem." The film was Joy Mukherjee's 'Ek Musafir, Ek Haseena'.

In 1971, she began doing her own shows with Nazir Mitha under the aegis of Showmakers, and also choreographed other fashion shows. That year also had her representing India at two international beauty pageants. "It was against my grain to take part in a beauty pageant; I hated the thought of exposing my statistics for scrutiny. But I wanted to travel. So when Mrs Ewing of 'Eve's Weekly' called me and said I had been chosen without a contest to represent India at the International Beauty Competition at Bangkok, well, I went."

She also took the title of second runner-up from among contestants from 52 countries, a rank she achieved again for India at the Miss Maja contest in Spain. "I had to organise my own clothes," she recalls. Which brings her to recalling that she often had to do that even for her modelling stints. "We had to do our own hair and faces, often use our own jewellery and clothes.

And we were all self taught. The wonderful part of it all has that there was healthy competition, and each one of us, I feel, because we were left on our own, developed individual styles. Today, the girls are very beautiful and much better pre-pared than we were, but they look like clones."

Slowly Into The Waltz
Salome smiles often even today, as she sits in her South Mumbai house, surrounded by art and memories. There are antiques, books, a grand piano with little dancing figurines. There are chaises, Chinese and Japanese influences. Sepia photographs.

Evidence of happy family life. Of the past and present, moving in unbroken rhythm. In 1974, she married Roy Kapur, whom she met in 1968 in Kashmir where he was stationed with the army, when she went to perform. She "hibernated" for two years after her first son was born. And then life fell back into the rhythm it follows even today. She still choreographs and organises shows, teaches modelling and grooming as part of a personality development course, and plans to start her dance classes for children again soon.

She has done 'Fiddler On The Roof' and 'A Christmas Carol' with G D Somani School, Mumbai, and 'Starlight Express' with Delhi Public School. Choreographed for the Alyque Padamsee productions of 'Jesus Christ Superstar' and 'Man Of La Mancha'; had actors making all the right moves in films like 'Bobby', 'Kasauti and 'Umang'. She follows in her father's footsteps with the dance classes she used to assist him with, sharing with others the sheer joy of moving in rhythm with the music. She personally teaches each of the three-month courses, assisted by loyal senior students.

Her brothers, now in Australia, remain her favourite partners. The men and women she steers around the dance floor today are a varied bunch. They range in years from the five-year-olds in her children's class to the retired schoolteacher who enrolled to fulfil a long-cherished dream. As the music on the hi-fi system goes through its set numbers, watching faces and body language is a lesson in hope. These are men and women who are finding their steps in life in the movements of dance, led by Salome's fancy footwork, guided by her sure arm.

Tap-Dancing
Cocooned in the love of three sons (and a very beloved daughter-in-law), a supportive husband, and a Dalmatian on whom her friendliness has obviously rubbed off, Salome lives a life that hovers slightly above the floor she steps so lightly on. It involves taking something from different faiths, sticking her tongue out at the sun, singing on the streets at dawn on Sundays with the Satya Sai 'nagar sangeet' group, being involved in the crusade against plastic bags with her Earthwise organisation, going door-to-door to urge people to vote and balancing her life with urine therapy and 'maT.Tn vrat' (silence) for an hour each morning for the last nine years.

At 52, her face is as if carved of unblemished porcelain, her steps are as lively as they were when she was a girl growing up as heiress to an art so elegant and agile. The only thing ordinary about her is her simplicity. She has been a model and a beauty contestant. She is still a choreographer, a grooming consultant, and a teacher of dance. She is also a wife, mother, friend. "My party number when I was young was 'Que Sera Sera'," Salome reveals. "And it forms my philosophy for life what will be, will be." Salome Roy Kapur obviously leaves the floor plan to a higher power.

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