Dancing with your feet can be mastered with rigorous practice but dancing with the heart is totally a different thing. Dance when performed with passion reflects freeness not just of the body but of the soul and is meditative for the performer.
We had the opportunity to interact with one such super-passionate person who breathes dance and trains to perfection. The road to the entertainment industry is anything but smooth. But with patience, perseverance, passion and hard work, Choreographer and Actor, Omkar Shinde, has created a niche for himself and continues to mesmerise the audience with his moves and choreography.
I have always taken my gut feelings into consideration while taking any decisions and have worked towards it. And I strongly believe in hard work.
Following are the extracts of an exclusive interview with Insights Success:
Please brief our audience about your professional journey.
I am a dancer, performer and choreographer. I started dancing professionally at the age of 15 years. I learnt Bharatanatyam from Shri Guru Parimal Phadke. I also learnt different dance styles like Contemporary, Indian Contemporary, all Latin styles, Bollywood, Hip-Hop etc. I performed as one of the top eight contestants of Dance India Dance Doubles in Geeta Ki Gang.
At the age of 18, I established my own academy in Pune named Om Dance Academy, which is presently conducted near Kothrud depot. I have been a winning choreographer of Nach Baliye 5 and 9, did Little Master (season 3), MAD (season 1). I played lead role in the Marathi movie named Anaan (released in 2017) with Prarthana Behere. I have been one of the Main Mentor in the Reality Show Maharashtracha Favourite Dancer on Sony Marathi and Super Dancer Chapter 2 on Sony.
Zee Marathi and Zee Yuva have titled me as The King Choreographer in Yuva Dancing Queen and Dancing King. Besides, I also choreographed reality shows, award functions, movies, music shows, serial title tracks, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Finale, India’s Got Talent 8, Fu Bai Fu Grand Final. I did Little Master (Season 2), Dance Ke Super Kids, Dance Plus (season 1 and season 2), Eka Peksha Ek Apsara Ali (Season 7), Maharashtracha Favourite Koun?, Zee Marathi Awards 2015, Gaurav Maharashtracha (ETV Marathi), Laxmikant Berde Awards
Mahesh Kothare Awards, Shambhar Numbari Ashok Saraf Awards
53RDÂ Marathi Chitrapath Sohla (State Awards), Sangeet of Serial Durva on Star Pravah, title song of Marathi Serial Dil Dosti Duniyadaari (Zee Marathi), YDQ and Dancing Queen.
What differentiates you from your competitors?
Me and my team have a different combination of things that when rolled up together create greater results and make us different from our competitors. Our choreographies are creative, unique and have a different technicality. For example: A Reverse Choreography or a Concept Based Choreography. Me and my entire team are specialized in different forms of dance which makes it easy for us to choreography any style of dance.
Guide us through your personal life. What does it look like?
Well, as long as I know I have always been a family person. My Parents have been everything to me. I have grown up around them and my sisters all the time. My mom has been a huge inspiration for me. She has taught me what it takes to be a good human being.
Om Dance Academy has always been my first baby and its members or students are my extended family who I care about all the time. I used to be a shy person at first, but my profession has totally changed me in and out. Now, I speak around confidently, and I am even more social than I have been before.
Once I start working on a reality show I do not really get time for my personal life as my time is occupied in choreographies 24/7 but I make sure that I take small breaks between projects to work on my personal life and spend time with my family even.
What were the challenges you faced while getting into this profession?
Being a boy getting permission to join a dance class for training was my biggest challenge at first. I didn’t inform my parents and joined a dance class. I continued my training and opened my own class when I was 18. During those years Pune was not that updated in dance so to continue my training I used travel to Mumbai every weekend to learn more forms of dance.
Another big challenge for me was to complete my Bharatnatyam training because during those times male Bharatnatyam dancers were considered different as people thought that Bharatnatyam should be done only by females. I broke the barrier and got my first break in Dance India Dance Doubles.
The field of reality shows is exhausting and has challenges in every aspect. I used to work 24/7. There have been times when I have not slept for a week and continued choreographing till the show got done. This was during India’s Got Talent Season 9. While doing Nach Baliye 9, we first had Faisal and Muskaan as contestants and Faisal used to shoot in Gujarat while Nach Baliye shoot was in Mumbai. So we used to travel every day to Gujarat teach them and take their rehearsal the whole week, travel back to Mumbai for the shoot plus Muskaan was a non-dancer and Faisal a professional dancer, so we had to work extra hours on her to match up to Faisal.
Once while doing Yuva Dancing Queen reality show on Zee Yuva, we were awake for 72 hours just for one performance where we used the miniature technique. My recent challenge was to make plus sized girls to dance. A reality show called Dancing Queen on Zee Marathi came in place for the first time ever for plus sized people during the ongoing pandemic. As they were plus sized, we had to compromise our acts, our costumes but we got a great positive response from our audience.
How the adaptation of new technology in your field has helped transforming your workspace and what more could be expected in the future?
Well, when I was in a reality show only dancing was the focus point but as technology came in big props came into place. While choreographing we had to take the setup and props also into consideration. Technical acts like chroma, top end, UV and miniature came into place. We have done all these technical acts till now and definitely will adapt more in the future.
How has the ongoing pandemic affected your work life? How are you sustaining in these difficult times, keeping yourself safe at the same time?
It has definitely been difficult you cannot really teach dance online. I prefer teaching in person as we can correct their body alignment, their style, their way of dancing. All these things are not possible now as we can’t physically touch them to correct them. Plus, half of the students get confused between the right and left sides of the screen but to sustain we had to keep our classes online. We did a whole reality show in this on-going pandemic which was tough and exhausting as dancing and teaching while wearing a mask is a task all together. We had our meetings every day on zoom during the first lockdown, taught our contestants online and shot the entire show from August 2020 till January 2021. It was tough, because if anyone fell sick even slightly, we would feel that the person is infected with covid. So, we took utmost precautions while shooting the show.
What would be your strategic approach to scale your profession or yourself in 2021 and beyond?
Well, my strategic approach has always been my intuition. I have always taken my gut feelings into consideration while taking any decisions and have worked towards it. And I strongly believe in hard work. If you are ready to do the amount of hard work required no one can take you down. Due to covid the world has changed, the industry has changed; so I will definitely adapt the way it is changing and work hard towards scaling my profession.
What would be your advice to budding professionals who aspire to venture your field of work?
It all starts with a goal and a plan! Decide on what you want to become first. If you are great at performing, be a performer or dancer, if you are great at choreographing be a choreographer. Get a mentor and train yourself towards it. Say ‘Yes’ to every opportunity that comes your way. Work, Work and work some more; nothing can replace hard work in this industry. It may seem exhausting at first, but it is definitely worth it once you see your work getting appreciation on national TV and beyond.
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run and what are your future goals?
This industry has given me everything that I have today – the respect, the fame, the title, the recognition. So, in the future I would like to do anything which is connected to my industry. I envision myself to become a creative director in the future who will direct his own show one day and as I have done a film earlier, I would even like to take up acting again. And I would like to open up more branches of Om Dance Academy in the future.
What is the current scenario of the industry that you cater to?
It has been difficult to take up any new show as due to lockdown we have not been able to shoot in Mumbai. Production houses have been facing big loses as they have to travel outside Mumbai for every shoot. Choreographers have been falling sick, contestants have been falling sick, getting quarantined for days and then continuing again in the show. It has been a huge task. It is taking a toll on the health. So, there is no profit in the industry currently. Contestants are finding it difficult to practice or give auditions as all studios are closed due to covid and everyone does not have that much space to practice at home.
