Rajasthan’s Shivani Paliwal heads to LA to be part of Simon Fuller’s pop group

Rajasthan’s young dancer Shivani Paliwal is all set to head to Los Angeles where she will train with artistes from China, South Africa, Japan, Korea, U.K., Brazil and Germany, as part of a global pop group, which has only two Indians on it.

Simon Fuller, best known for managing The Spice Girls, one of the biggest girl bands in pop history, and as the creator of the Idol franchise (American Idol/Indian Idol), selected 15-year-old Paliwal and Mumbai girl Simran Duggal after a round of auditions in March this year.

Fuller’s company, Now United, conducted the auditions for the global pop group, at the True School of Music in Lower Parel, Mumbai.

Paliwal, a student of Rajiv Shruti Dance Institute in Udaipur, will perform with the pop group for three years across the world, said Leena Sharma, her dance teacher. “It’s a dream come true for me to be part of such a group,” said Paliwal. “I want my dance career to take off from here.”

A student of Class 10 at Alok Senior Secondary School in the lake city, Paliwal performed hip hop and backing dance forms during auditions in Mumbai in March this year.

Sharma says Fuller came to Indian in search of musicians and dancers in December. During his hunt, Bollywood choreographer Rajiv Shruti showed him video of Paliwal’s dance. The Udaipur girl was called for auditions and she was selected among top 40 contestants.

Few months later, she was called to Mumbai where she ended up being the only second girl to be part of Fuller’s global team of 11 from countries including Japan, Korea, China, U.K., U.S., Mexico and Brazil. “She will go to LA in August this year for one-week training. Her mother, Radha Paliwal, will accompany her on the training,” Sharma said.

“My daughter began dancing when she was just 3 years old,” says Paliwal’s mother. “She has been winning several awards since childhood. We are very happy for her.”

This is the first time the mother-daughter duo will travel abroad.