Daily Times

MUMBAI: Sandip Soparrkar is an Indian dancer and a choreographer who is well known for Ballroom dances like Cha-Cha, Rumba, Jive, Paso-Doble, Samba, Waltz, Tango and many others. He is the first Indian to be certified by the Ballroom Dance Teachers Training School in Bonn, Germany. He is indeed the pioneer of Ballroom Dance in India and also the force behind the popular dance festival The India Dance Week.

Over a decade now, Sandip has been working to bring world dances to Indian shores. Apart from giving dance training to people around the world, he has also been talking about the importance of dance in life. The month of November seemed to have been very lucky for the talented choreographer, as Sandip was honoured with three prestigious awards in the field of dance and humanity.

Bharat Icon Award was given to him in the field of art; as he is the one who made International Dance forms like Ballroom and Latin American dances popular in India. The award was presented to him by renowned actor Gajendra Chouhan and world famous Guru Kumaran Swamiji at a glittering award ceremony in Mumbai.

In Delhi he was honoured with the prestigious The Humanity Excellence Award by We Welfare Society for his social contribution. Through his NGO Dance for a Cause, Sandip has been helping many people and raising funds for various other charities. At the award show held at Siri Fort, Sandip said, “I dedicate this award to my parents Rani and Ajay Soparkar for always teaching my brother Sanjay and me to follow our talent not just as a passion but a way to spread awareness and bring the change in the society and this award is also for all my students, who believed in my vision of Dance for a Cause and have always encouraged my art.”

Completing the hat trick of awards was the Global Face of Dance Award which was presented to the dynamic dancer by Hollywood Actress Dominique Swain and festival director Mr. Sandeep Marwah at the 9th Global Film Festival. At this cinema festival along with super model Alesia Raut, Sandip conducted a session with aspiring actors and directors on the topic of importance of dance in cinema and modelling.

The kind of elaborate work the choreographer has been doing in the field of dance is truly inspiring; on receiving three famous awards back to back Sandip Soparrkar said, “Awards bring responsibilities and with these three awards I feel a lot has been put on my shoulders. All I can say is thank you for loving my life – my dance.”