Golden Bird Open 2026, a celebration of West Coast Swing and Social Jive, to be held in Bengaluru

Lourd Vijay of Lourd Vijay’s Dance Studio (LVDS), the festival director, talks about the upcoming event, the various dance forms explored in it and what it means for Bengaluru’s larger dance ecosystem

Published - August 11, 2026 03:13 pm IST

Golden Bird Open 2026 will consist of workshops, socials and competitions | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Lourd Vijay thinks of social jive as India-centric. “The Anglo-Indians left it to us as a legacy. This kind of jive doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world,” says the founder of Bengaluru’s Lourd Vijay’s Dance Studio (LVDS), a pioneer in introducing Latin and social dances to India.

In his view, interest in this sort of jive “specific to Bengaluru, Mumbai around Bandra and Bow Barracks in Kolkata, where the Anglo-Indian community thrived,” has been rising. “Social jive has had a big comeback,” says Lourd, the festival director of Golden Bird Open 2026, a three-day celebration of West Coast Swing and Social Jive, which will be held in the city between August 14 and 16.

The idea for having social jive as a major part of the festival, “is to celebrate what we already have,” he says. It is also, he says, a good complement to the West Coast Swing, a dance form with roots in Lindy Hop, which has, “thanks to Instagram”, gotten quite popular in recent times.

“We have been doing it only for the last three to four years in India, and the community is still small. I am hoping that the jive community will start adding to the West Coast Swing community,” he says.

Lourd Vijay | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Golden Bird Open 2026 has plenty of opportunities for this to happen, given its offerings, which include workshops, bootcamps and socials as well as the Jack & Jill competition, “a format unique to the world of social dancing where partners are paired at random and judged not on choreography, but on their ability to communicate through improvisation, musicality and connection,” as the event’s release states.

The event, which will be held in three locations across Bengaluru — LVDS, Molly’s Courtyard and The Humming Tree — will have multiple artistes from across the country and beyond being part of it. Some of these include Anjali Kukreja, Mayank Mathur, Lillian Mendes, Petra Fernandes and Neil Joshi, “the headlining artist coming in from the US, the only Indian champion on the West Coast Swing circuit,” explains Lourd.

Beyond the competitions and workshops, the festival is also about spotlighting the growing culture of social partner dancing in India — one that values respect, inclusivity and genuine human connection as much as technical skill.

“It gets people out of their shells, makes them more confident, aware of gender neutrality and respect,” says Lourd, who believes that while Indian dance genres such as classical dance, Bollywood and Bhangra will always rule the roost, “people are open to trying out new forms, going by the numbers coming to our studios. It is a small number, but enough for all of us to survive.”

Golden Bird Open 2026 – India’s Premier West Coast Swing & Social Jive Experience will be held at multiple locations in the city, between August 14 and 16. To know more, log into goldenbirdopen.com

Published - August 11, 2026 03:13 pm IST

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