Shan and his
choreo partner Alisha
Together they are
known as Alishan or #TeamShantanu
Alisha was his
co-star in D3 and they already knew each other. Shan, being an introvert takes
time to bond with someone and he is very happy to have Alisha as his partner
Shantanu says: "Being a dancer
will make my Jhalak sojourn a tad harder for knowing the craft the judges would
expect much more in terms of visual differences in each round as compared to
what a non dancer will be expected to deliver week on week. It's not about
who's the best dancer but about who progresses the most. We need to be able to
visually show the difference in our dance. So it's actually tougher for all of
us"
" We have worked
together in D3 hence there is a certain comfort level and we know each other's strengths and
weakness which should make our Jodi stronger on the dance floor. I am confident that if I give my best I have it
in me to go the whole hog. Knowing Alisha helps because I'm am an
introvert, and if you're not comfortable with someone on stage, it shows."
Hip pop is also
Alisha's forte but together they tried so many styles like broadway, chau,
robotics, semi-classical ,lyrical and contemporary. Nimit Kotian and Macy D'mello(
Shan's best friends and crew mates ) are also officially assisting Alisha in
the choregraphy
TEAM SHANTANU
Interview
with shantanu maheshwari, Nimit kotian, macy d'mello, and Palki mam
How has Jhalak helped your craft? It is one of the shows where you have to cater to a certain audience, play with the camera. I say this because when I'm watching it, I think to myself, well, this is not the most technically sound dance.
(Laughs heard).
Tell me a bit about your journey as a performer, Shantanu. And for the rest of you, how should a dance be set on stage? Also, do you find it an inherent struggle to do a dance that is not technically accurate?
SM: I think initially when I started the Jhalak journey, I was into showing dance, dance, dance because that's my background. Later, after two, three rounds, I got feedback that I should concentrate more on performing - presentation-wise. You should look like a celebrity star. This is what I learned in terms of performing the act right. Getting the X-factor out because that is one of the biggest criteria to judge the performance. Regarding the form, it used to bother me a lot. But then, we need to realize that in India, there are no or very few proper technically trained people to teach you proper forms because we mix so many things so to know the original form properly is very hard.
PM: Like, for example, when he performed krumping with Salman, it was not the most technically sound krumping that gets the marks. So it bothered Shantanu and me a lot. Nimit and Mace were not initially a part of Shantanu's team in Jhalak at the time. We did eventually come to an understanding that if you present yourself a certain way, it doesn't really matter if you are presenting it technically well. We had to un-do things. The kinds of learning these three have is technical. We had to un-do that learning. We had to put Shantanu on a stage where he looked like a celebrity, not just as a dancer. Especially when Nimit and Mace came on board, they tried to strike a balance between technical dancing and presentation of the whole act.
MD: There were a lot of times where we would pull our hair out and we'd be like, "this is not original, how are people getting marks? And this is so unfair and why are they getting these comments? So we thought we should focus on what he already knows and let's get that back. So all the moves that he already did, so me and Nimit we used to choreograph, like the group dance he did, we said, "at the end of the song, you have to do a suicide". He's like "what?". He's never done that in his entire life. Nimit and I were like we want it, so we don't care how you do it in three days, but you have to do it. He said, "okay, I'll do it. But how do you do it?" (chuckles). It was about focusing on moves you can do. We just concentrated on doing something we already know as opposed to doing moves that are already copied.
PM: There are moves Shantanu has never done before in spite of Dil Dosti Dance for four years and Bindass Naach.
NK: Alisha and Shantanu have two different brains. Alisha had her own perception because of her own experience. When Mace and me came, we thought, let's not do what other people are doing. Let's do our own thing. So me and Mace were like let's do different things.
PM: Alisha was also a part of Dil Dosti Dance. She comes from a dancing reality background. I know Alisha since she was a child. When Alisha and Shantanu started, they had very different points of view. She was slightly more Bollywood and filmy. There was no time, because this season they had to prepare two acts in a week. Three or four rounds later, Alisha came back to her roots. She has done a lot of work with Bollywood choreographers. But Nimit, Macedon, and Shantanu, believe in pure dancing. She understood and came around. Like when they did pure street on a Marathi song ("Zingat").
Did the familiarity help you?
SM: See, we didn't have an opportunity to dance together as a couple on D3. But we did share a certain kind of rapport. I'm an introvert and I take some time to get comfortable with anybody, for that matter. So I knew Alisha and I knew her style and she knew my style. It got easier than having somebody I didn't know. We bonded well.
PM: I feel that if he had got any other choreographer, I don't think his dancing style would have been noticed. There are very few female dancers who can do justice in street and Alisha is one of them. She may not be technically and absolutely correct but the way she has matched up to Shantanu, I don't think anybody else could have done that.
SM: And that's thanks to these two guys too because they used to make us continuously rehearse. Macedon and Nimit really deserve credit.
Edited by Y12345 - 7 years ago
comment:
p_commentcount