Dancers are instruments, like a piano the choreographer plays, said George Balanchine. And Rocky Poonawala is one such choreographer who knows how to play his instruments to the best of his ability and their's as well.

Swaying the body, either to the disciplined rhythm of classical dance or to the freer and gyrating Latin American dances, makes one feel out of oneself - larger, more beautiful and more elevated. To communicate the same essence of elation and elegance inherent in the art of dancing, the annual show of Rocky Poonawala's dance academy is held annually, this year on June 1 at Symbiosis Vishwabhavan.

What is fascinating about the annual show is that it has most of Poonawala's students at various stages of initiation and differing walks of life partaking of the yearly performance. "The show would last for about two and a half hours and has 110 students performing. We have doctors, engineers and other business professionals, along with housewives and of course students (all his pupils from the dance schools, that is) who would get together to enliven the show for the evening," Poonawala says with a hint of decorous pride and achievement. "A pied array of dance genres, from the high-energy Bollywood-style to folk dances to rumba, which is a romantic dance, cha-cha, paso doble, salsa and variegated Latin American dances have been orchestrated for numerous groups of performers according to the level of their learning. We have the advanced dancers who have three performances to stage, the intermediate students' items and finally the ones who are in the basic phase," he elucidates.

A flamboyantly elaborate episode with multi-flavoured varieties like this one is best appreciated by an audience that understands the meticulous creativity that has gone in its concoction. For the same, Poonawala has spoken with Ashutosh Gowarikar and Amol Palekar to be present at the event. "We have also invited renowned classical danseuses like Shambhavi Vaze and Manisha Sathe," says the ace dancer who has choreographed ad films and a video for Indian Idol Amit Sana's song, introduced Marathi cinema to salsa for the first time with the movie Tujhya Majhyat and whose corporate clientele features names like Mercedes and Kirloskar.

Of course, with him you can't really know the dancer from the dance. Supervising multiple dance schools – two on Bhandarkar Road and one in Baner, with an upcoming one in Kalyani Nagar – maybe a handful but not when you are impassioned about what you do. Having personally choreographed the formats and arrangements for all the dances, Poonawala is keen for the D-day. This is an event for art's sake, to celebrate the consummate skills of the participants, rather than for commercially tendentious purposes. He shares his modest rationale behind the whole-hearted affair, saying, "The dance troupes have been rehearsing for close to a couple of months now. For every session and every dance pattern, there were instructors training the performers. Throughout the year, we do commercial work, but this is the one time where we dance from the heart, a tribute to the art that it is."