“Those boys that dance, Quickstyle, they are here,” the security guards whisper to themselves.

I am entering a five-star hotel in Karachi where I am supposed to meet three of the main members of the dance troupe that hot-stepped their way into our lives some months ago with a YouTube music video that became stratospherically popular. The excitement is palpable.

The location is supposed to be a secret one and yet, as I wait for the interview to begin, young girls and boys keep trying to enter the conference room where I am meant to meet the boys. Phones in their hands, they ask if they can take a selfie.

An Instagram influencer I know briefly wheedles me to give away some of the time allotted to me for the interview so that he can create ‘some content’.

The Norway-based dance troupe Quickstyle went viral earlier this year, dancing to the Balochi hit song Kana Yaari. Then they performed at the Coke Studio Live concert in Dubai. With the boys from the troupe in Karachi, Icon caught up with them for an exclusive, to find out what makes them tick…

It is rare that a path-breaking, trendsetting, globally successful dance troupe makes its way to Karachi and, now that they are here, everyone wants to meet them, take a selfie, maybe even try to dance a little bit with them!

As part of the Magic on Wheels collaboration with Coke Studio (CS), four of the boys from Quickstyle — founding members Suleman Malik, Bilal Malik and Nasir Sirikhan as well as Yasin Tatby — have been roaming through Karachi for the past few days. They have danced on college campuses, played street cricket, sampled desi food, met a few of Pakistan’s actors and social media stars and danced the bhangra inside a bus winding its way through the city’s clustered streets.

They have also sat through quite a few interviews where, unfortunately, they tell me that everyone has been ‘asking them the same questions’.

Have you ever been interviewed so frequently before? Never, they say, and they look a bit exhausted about it all.

“Maybe you could ask us different questions,” Nasir suggests to me as we are about to get started. This niggles at me throughout my conversation with Suleman, Bilal and Nasir, as I try to somehow innovate through my questionnaire. Has someone asked you this before, I ask them occasionally. The boys shrug, being good sports, “That’s alright, we’ll just answer it differently this time.”

At one point, Bilal quips, “I’d like to have some biryani now … but there is another interview after this one.” I feel for them. Success does come with its repercussions.

In Quickstyle’s case, success has been sudden and unexpected, making them overnight worldwide sensations. It was 20-odd years ago when these three young boys from Norway fell in love with dance and decided that it was what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives.

They won competitions, collated a bigger troupe, collaborated with major international artists, toured the world and set up an academy where they continue to train other enthusiasts, building a ‘community’ of dancers.

However, it was only earlier this year that a video of them dancing at a wedding went viral. A grinning, swaggering big group of them danced with extreme precision to a medley of songs that varied from hit Bollywood numbers to singles from CS.

Social media was hooked. The Indo-Pakistan subcontinent was particularly entranced by how they had reinvented some of our all-time hit songs in cool new ways. They tell me that their greatest fan following now is in India and Pakistan.

One of the songs that they danced to was the folk-hit Kana Yaari from this year’s CS. It led to them performing at the Coke Studio Live concert earlier this year in Dubai and, finally, brought them to Karachi.

‘Good chaos’

Did they have apprehensions regarding their security while coming to Pakistan? No, they reply in unison.

Twin brothers Bilal and Suleman are Norwegian-Pakistanis and they tell me that they have visited three or four times before. It is Norwegian-Thai Nasir’s first trip here. “We don’t believe what we see in the news,” Nasir says.

Bilal adds, “We have a very strong faith that God protects us wherever we go. We don’t believe in [living in] fear. There is so much propaganda in the news and we can’t let ourselves fall for it. We have our own platform through which we can show people our particular experiences and how we feel about Pakistan.”

“The people are so loving and it’s just very exciting being here,” observes Suleman.

What have they liked about what they have seen of Pakistan? “There’s good chaos in everything you see,” says Nasir. “We have been to places where there are all sorts of colours; blue, yellow, red, all mixed together and it works, it looks good, it feels good. You see the traffic structure, there is no traffic structure, but it still works, everyone can still flow within the traffic.”

I interject, could it possibly be that they see beauty in all these chaotic details because their own country is in sharp contrast to it? “Yes, it’s very different in Norway,” Nasir concedes, “but I go to Bangkok every year to visit my grandmother and there is just as much chaos there. I like that as well.”

Bilal says, “There is so much more to Pakistan. Right now, we’ve only visited Karachi but there are mountains, rivers, the whole Punjab area…”

So where would you want to go next in Pakistan? “Gilgit,” he says. “I have seen so many videos on YouTube of people who have travelled there and it looks beautiful.”

“I’d like to go up North,” says Suleman, “the regions where the markhor is and the snow leopard. Perhaps I won’t see them but it would be nice to explore the mountains.”

Nasir, on the other hand, wants to visit Peshawar. “I have partly Pakistani roots and I have family there,” he tells me, “and I want to try out the chapli kababs.”

Desi music trivia

It’s evident that the boys aren’t strangers to Pakistan — or to Pakistani music. Bilal and Suleman explain that they belong to a Pakistani household where their ‘many siblings’ would be listening to Pakistani music all the time.

“We love Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and all of Junaid Jamshed’s early work,” says Bilal. “So we’ve all jammed to a lot of Pakistani music.

“There was this one time when we were very young, when Junoon had a concert in Norway and afterwards our big brother brought the group over to our home,” recalls Suleman. “We also know of the new artists that are making music now, emerging from different parts of Pakistan. It’s very exciting.”

Bilal adds, “Our big brother also introduced us to Coke Studio. He played the very first season and it was so cool and then new seasons would come out every year.”

“It’s easy to listen to Coke Studio,” says Suleman. “You put on one song and then the playlist goes on and on. The show is huge, worldwide, not just in Pakistan. For us to be here today, working with Coke Studio, it’s crazy, it’s an honour.” Nasir became acquainted with Pakistani music through the brothers and became an enthusiast too. “There’s a lot of joy and colour to the show [CS],” says Nasir. “It’s a great sound to listen to after a long day of rehearsals, or when you want to disconnect from the technical aspects of dance.”

What’s your favourite CS season, then, I ask. “This year’s season was great,” says Suleman. “There was a lot of original music in it.” He adds, grinning, “We also have another favourite season — the next one!”

I am confused: have you heard some of next year’s CS? “No, I just feel it,” he points at his heart.

“It’s going to be out of this world!” Nasir chimes in.

Are you implying that the Quickstyle group will be part of CS this time round? “We don’t know anything,” says Bilal, “but it’s gonna be so good.”

I am perplexed — and they find this extremely entertaining.

I change tack. They also danced to Bollywood songs in their famous wedding video and even danced with Indian actor Anil Kapoor recently. Do they listen to a lot of Bollywood music too?

“Bollywood is huge,” Nasir says. “Even people who don’t understand the language being spoken know of Bollywood, of Shah Rukh Khan. I have a Thai background and people there watch Bollywood. Their movies have exported a lot of music to the world and, of course, we knew of it and danced to it!”

“Everyone listens to Bollywood,” says Suleman, “and Bilal and I grew up watching Bollywood movies. Anil Kapoor was in a lot of them. When the troupe met Anil Kapoor, we told them that he was a major actor and showed them clips from his old songs. They really felt his vibe.”

Dancing the Quickstyle Way!

Anil Kapoor is merely one amongst the many illustrious names that the group has worked with. Their repertoire includes working with the likes of Usher, K-Pop sensations BTS and, most recently, a short dancing tryst with actress Mahira Khan! How long does it take them to perfect a dance routine?

“It only took us 20 years,” deadpans Nasir.

I word my question differently: if they want to create a clip for Instagram, does it take a long while to make sure everyone moves completely in sync?

“We’re very quick to figure out our moves,” Nasir says. “We just need to connect with the song and, once that happens, we all think of some moves and bring it all together.”

Suleman adds, “We are now living in an era where audiences don’t want to see long videos. So we’ve been creating a lot of short videos and, honestly, if you put them all together, they will only add up to maybe two complete choreographed performances. We can choreograph longer videos too, but we feel that the audience really enjoys the short ones.”

Do people ask them to dance wherever they go and do they find this irritating? “Yes,” replies Suleman, “and yes, it is irritating.” I have obviously touched a nerve. Suleman continues, “Sometimes you’re not in working mode and a stranger will come up to you and say dance for me! We don’t. There are a lot of feelings involved in what we do. When we are with kids, we dance…” Nasir says, “It’s personal and you need to feel welcome.”

“I mean do you go to an actor and tell him to act for you?” Bilal asks.

“That’s what we should do next time!” laughs Nasir. “When someone asks us to dance for them, we should ask them what they do for a profession and tell them to do that for us.”

The group may now be a global dancing phenomenon but was there a time when their families were sceptical regarding their decision to become professional dancers? I add that most Pakistani parents would insist that their children pursue more conventional, viable careers.

Suleman and Bilal nod in understanding — they may live in Norway but they understand the trappings of a desi household! Bilal muses, “There was a mix of support and also, not support, especially in the beginning. There was this time that we went to dance practice and, on returning home, our Mom did not talk to us for the rest of the day!

“And I’ll tell you a funny story: we had been dancing for one or two years and had gotten really passionate about it while our grades slid down. One day, our big brother threatened us that he would make us quit if we didn’t bring up our grades. And he fainted.” He points to Suleman.

Did you really faint, I am a bit incredulous. Nasir finds this funny.

“I was not acting!” Suleman professes. “Imagine, you find your passion, you know where you want to go with it and you are looking forward to it every day and someone suddenly threatens you and forces you to work on something that you’re really bad at [studies].

“Our big brother told us that we would have to quit unless we got the best scores in school and I just thought to myself, ‘That’s not gonna happen!’”

And how did your family react, I turn to Nasir. “My family is more silent about how they feel. They wanted to give me the room to try to do what I wanted, but when it came to a point that nothing more was happening, they started asking questions.” He continues: “But really, we have been lucky compared to other dance groups, because people began liking our work quite quickly. Soon we had started travelling and teaching classes to other dancers. A lot of our friends were settling into their adult lives by then, buying their own apartments and cars, while we were investing in a studio where we could teach dance…” “And we were buying clothes and shades, let’s be honest here,” Suleman smiles.

Bilal adds, “It was different for us. Our friends went off to university while we danced and travelled the world!” You got to work with BTS, I point out.

“There’s nothing like the way they get things done in Korea,” recalls Nasir. “They have a set system and, as choreographers, we were just one of the components in the process. Our interaction was more digital than physical. We created the choreography and, suddenly, we saw a music video that was getting billions of views worldwide!” “And now we’re here, Coke Studio!” he spreads out his hands wide.

“There’s a lesson to be learnt in this,” says Bilal. “Everyone can make their dreams come true if they don’t give up.” I interject: don’t they think that it’s easier for them to pursue their dreams since they hail from a developed nation where they don’t have to worry about earning enough to afford life’s basic necessities?

“Yes, true,” Nasir agrees, “but today’s power lies in how everyone can access TikTok and Instagram. Today’s youth can easily view dance from all over the world, whereas we just had four, five videos that we would watch again and again. “It’s just that we were more hungry back then while the overload of information has spoilt young people today. You may not have necessities for free in Pakistan but you still have wifi and your phone, basically the whole world in your pocket!”

The success of their wedding dance video is also, of course, thanks to the all-pervasive powers of the internet. I am curious: why is the audience sitting on the sidelines during their dance watching so complacently and not cheering enthusiastically? “There’s a whole bunch behind the camera that’s going crazy,” Nasir tells me.

Bilal says, “Some crowds don’t jump about, they just sit back and enjoy. We appreciate that too!” Did they ever expect that a video of them dancing at a wedding would make them global superstars? They smile. “If we had expected it, we would have done it sooner!” says Nasir.

Published in Dawn, ICON, December 11th, 2022