as the clock struck 12 at midnight ludhiana sprung into life as residents burst crackers and hollered new year wishes at the top of their voices to welcome 2012 parties gettogethers and cultural events were held across the city but the one that hogged limelight was the south korean dance groups matkas and jhatkas that shook ludhianivis setting a precedence of sorts the traditional dance performance of south korean traditional art performance group hata at a local mall along ferozepur road was appreciated so much by people that they couldnt stop raving about the group they grooved and gushed got pictures clicked and took videos of the performance hata was in city as part of the cultural exchange programme and performed at the punjab international folk festival presented by punjab cultural promotion council and ghungroo musical club director of the group louis 41 from daegu city in south korea said it was fun to perform for a punjabi audience especially ludhiana punjab is an ocean of traditional dances we all have watched the punjabi martial art gatka and liked it extremely we are a team of 10 comprising six girls and four boys who have come to india for the first time and we are loving the experience we will carry happy memories from here lee 35 a dancer of the cultural group whose 10yearold son gun is also accompanying her said i am touched by the hospitality of the people here they watched our dance with interest cheered us and even recorded the performances vishal khullar a private sector employee from gill road said they were amazing performers i liked their dance and their energy levels were awesome sukhminder singh 32 a businessman of daba colony said my wife simran and i had come here for shopping but when we saw this group performing we didnt want to miss their performance we even made a video of the electrifying dance the beats of dhols which they played were more or less the same as we do for bhangra music has the same soul everywhere buchae chum the fan dance left the crowd gaping with awe as the artists swirled and moved with perfect grace apart from this the mood across city hotels clubs lounges and bars was also upbeat members of satluj club were entertained by comedian sheraz khan while belly dancers stole the show in lodhi club with their performance and magician rajesh kumar wowed with his humour at hotel park plaza celebrity singercumperformer shipra a russian dj romonov and columbian band urantia took the audience by storm and those who enjoyed the final countdown of 2011 at hotel keys were entertained by flipino band froze and feri turn clickhappystart