Mumbai: American dancer Lauren Gottlieb, who was also seen as a runner-up in the sixth season of ‘Jhalak Dikhlaa Jaa’, is excited to perform on the song ‘Naatu Naatu’ which has been nominated at this year’s Academy Awards as the lead female dancer at the Oscars 2023.
Talking about the opportunity, Lauren shared: “I feel so grateful to have been given the opportunity to represent India on such a global platform. Oscars are one of the biggest stages in the world and for India to be represented in such a big way and get nominated is incredible.”
She further mentioned, “The fact that I have been chosen to be the lead female dancer and connect Bollywood and Hollywood, both the closest things to my heart, is surreal. I feel a big sense of responsibility to make sure the piece is authentic and makes India proud.”
Lauren insisted that she is working hard with her choreographers Napoleon and Tabitha D’umo to get the perfect balance between the crispness of the western stage and the freedom of the street style of India.
She added, “Before India ever happened for me, I had the opportunity to assist Napoleon and Tabitha on big production dance jobs in Hollywood. So it’s a huge homecoming moment for us. It’s been an incredible week sharing my knowledge of Indian dance and my experiences living in India with the entire cast.”
She continued, “I’ve been helping fine-tune the steps and I even convinced NappyTabs to have the two lead male dancers lip-sync the song. Earlier they thought it would be too difficult, but I said it’s Bollywood, so the lip-syncing has to be done.”
She also shared how she trained the other dancers, “I have shown them Ranveer Singh and Allu Arjun’s songs to get them to know the essence of Bollywood music. Bollywood is performed much larger than how we dance in the West. I even taught everyone how to do namaste and bow their heads after the performance. It makes me emotional knowing in just two days I will get to perform ‘Naatu Naatu’ on one of the most prestigious stages in the world.”
–IANS