Adgully Exclusive | If you take your head up, you will fall down: Sandip Soparrkar

Bollywood is known as the world of song and dance, while the famous dance moves were called "dancing around the tree", the films have over the past few years seen newer dance forms being imbibed. Though some of the older songs tried to explore Jive and Twist, most of the other forms of ballroom dancing like Salsa, Tango, Mambo, Samba, Waltz etc never made their entry into films in its original form.

Over a lot of years, a lot of known choreographers tried to mix styles and create a unique style calling it the Bollywood dance form. Gradually, the trend saw a drastic change with a team of choreographers bringing in various dance forms ranging from hip-hop, salsa to contemporary dance. The filmy "naach-gaana" went into a total revamp and choreography started being looked at as a very professional foundation of a film.

On one hand a lot of movies had well-rehearsed actors and actresses performing the dances for the camera, many a dance reality television shows dealing with celebrities or common people tried to explore the huge variety in dance forms. The likes of Shiamak Davar, Bosco & Caeser and Terence Lewis tried to revolutionarise dancing for our favourite multiplex "Heroes". One of the leading name in this category of new age choreographers is none other than Sandip Soparrkar, Adgully chatted up with the "Ballroom Guru of India".

Sandip started his career in Bollywood with Shyam Benegal's movie Zubeida, since then he has made a name for himself in the industry and society at large and has been associated with a dance reality show for kids too. Talking about his journey he says, "My journey has been quite surprising actually, I never knew that in the 10 years that I have been in India things will progress so much. I had come from Germany on a holiday to India when I got my first offer, and my holiday is still going on."

In the initial years, he found it difficult to put across the meaning, the necessity and the enjoyment of ballroom dance form to the masses. "People did not accept it right away. It was very tough initially; people had inhibitions about dancing with unknown people. They were hesitant to hold hands," he explains.

However things have changed now and Sandip feels that people have become more open in terms of learning the style and dancing. He feels that now more and more people want to learn the dance form and that people don't mind doing shows with complete strangers. "So it's all about how comfortable you have got with the dance form, it is not about holding hands but it is about dancing," he adds.

Talking about Bollywood's gradual acceptance of the western dance forms, Sandip says, "Bollywood was not open to accepting western dance forms sometime back. But now it is and movie-makers are now ready to experiment. So now there are two films that I am choreographing for, and the directors of the film-Madhur Bhandarkar and Vishal Bhardwaj have told me that they want authenticity."

From Bollywood to common masses, Sandip has also tried to initiate ballroom dance amongst the corporate professionals. Some of the organizations that he has been associated with are ' Jet Airways, ICICI Bank, HSBC Bank, Hinduja Hospital and Lintas.

Although there have been specific dance forms that have hit off well with the dance lovers, there are some very famous western dance forms that haven't been explored on the Indian stage in a big way. One of them being Broadway, Sandip explains that, "I think it has not got enough leverage because Broadway is essentially to do with plays. Besides in India we do not have many musicals. So probably the dance form as such is not getting very popular. But in case we start doing musicals as plays, I am sure it will become famous."

While there are some dance forms which haven't been explored to the fullest, there is also a visibly overshadowing phenomenon in the dance industry. Many a times a lot of the talented youth get camouflaged by a star or celebrity's presence in a song or stage, which in turn makes their effort "a blink and you miss it" occurrence. Sandip agrees that this is widely happening across the section, but he feels that not everybody has the quality to be a star, so sometime the star just over shines compared to the "side-dancers'. "Some of these dancers are fabulous and their efforts are recognized. The industry also provides work for such talented people. Finally for a dancer recognition and appreciation are important," he contends.

As a message to young talents, Sandip warns that, "Especially for the ones who take recognition to their heads, after the reality show boom they think they have become stars. I think the best part for a dancer is that he/she dances on the ground and not on the clouds. So if you take your head up, you will fall down."

Stylish and filled with finesse might be the dance form that he lives, breathes and talks of, he also boasts of a strong mind. Sandip has achieved a lot so far and seems determined to go an extra mile to add some more brownie points. High-spirited that he might seem, he is truly a grounded and humble leader. | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]