Sanam Johar and Emilie Callion talk about their experience in Dare 2 Dance and how the show pushed their limits to a point where they re-invented themselves and their love for dance
When Emilie Callion began taking gymnastic lessons at the tender age of three, she never thought her acrobatic skills would open her up to the world of dance. One of the many participants in the Dare 2 Dance reality show on life OK, this French beauty has come out of her comfort zone of hip-hop, jazz and freestyle to dance under water or inside rings of fire. “I gave my first stage performance at nine and it was my passion for dance that brought me to the sets of the show,” Emilie shares. She was studying to become a physical education teacher but dance attracted her so much that she changed steps after her graduation. And she doesn’t regret her decision. A chance encounter changed her fate. She was spotted by none other than host Akshay Kumar, who was shooting for the show Cape Town and where she was a member of the dance troupe.
“The challenges that I faced in the show,” she mentions, “were something I had never been faced with before, leave alone doing them. It was scary at times but my urge to push my limits kept me going,” she smiles.
A girl who dances for the love of the art, Emilie was brought into the show owing to her fearless attitude and her willingness to go to extremes. She points out, “The reason for agreeing to be a part of an Indian-oriented dance show was partly because I was attracted to the Indian classical dance forms. Plus, I thought that being a part of an Indian reality show would also help me in broadening my horizon and extending my dancing career to newer countries.”
Delhi boy Sanam Johar, who has already made a name for himself post a television dance reality show as a dancer and choreographer, is looking at another show for a toss-up that will take him closer to his dream: being part of Bollywood, earning his 15 minutes of fame and making quick money. He appears visibly exhausted and tanned after weeks of gruelling boot camps at Cape Town. “These will be the few weeks of my life that I will never forget,” says Sanam. To complete the challenges were his sole focus during his stay there. “We had to get up as early as 4 am, warm up and be at the sets by 5 am,” he recalls.
He was one of the few bold people who took up every challenge and chose to stay back in the show while others opted out. “I always questioned myself as to what levels I can take my dance to, to what heights I can reach. Now, after going through all the challenges and dares that we were put through, I can safely say that I can dance in any given situation, however adverse, dangerous or challenging it may be, at any given time.”
For this boy, who graduated with Honours in Physics from Hindu College, he never found it difficult to balance academics and dance. He fulfilled his parents’ wishes of completing his graduation before he decided to make a full-time career out of his passion. With a contented smile on his face, he says, “While people listen to music and travel for recreation, I dance. That is my way of unwinding myself.”
So dedicated is he towards his art that he continued dancing despite snapping his finger during a shoot. “I feel no pain when I dance and I guess that’s what kept me going then,” adds Sanam. Although trained in classical ballet by Fernando Aguilera, contemporary and Bollywood styles, it was difficult for him to groove against unimagined backdrops. “The only things that scared us were the factors that went against us. Dancing on a truck moving at its highest speed, performing on a hanging platform 100 ft high or up in the air at freezing temperatures aren’t exactly normal,” he points out.
This one of a kind stunt dance show will also feature celebrities like Kunwar Amarjeet Singh, Rithvik Dhanjani, Alisha Singh, Mayuresh and Sayantani Ghosh. The creatives have also roped in Bollywood item girl Scarlett Mellish to up the oomph factor.
For the show host and mentor, Khiladi Akshay Kumar, being part of an edge-of-the-seat reality show is nothing new. “Being host of a normal reality show was never my cup of tea. So when Ajit Thakur, GM, life OK, approached me with the offer, I decided to tweak it a bit. That was how the whole idea of pushing the limits of dance to the extremes hit me and Dare 2 Dance was conceptualised,” says he. Thakur sums up: “like life OK, Akshay Kumar too has successfully managed to challenge the status quo with his constant need to push the envelope and move beyond the common.”
photos Pankaj Kumar