‘Just Dance’ winner wants to be the best dancer ever

The show started off with 13 contestants on board from India and abroad.

NEW DELHI:

Ankan Sen — an 18-year-old who has not taken formal training in dance — received his moment of fame when he won Star Plus’ dance contest show “Just Dance”. The show, which also held auditions in the UK and the US, started off with 13 contestants on board from India and abroad.

“It feels like I’m still dreaming and I really don’t want to get out of it. It’s a great feeling and an even more flattering thing was that I got to dance with my idol Hrithik Roshan on the same stage,” beams Sen.

Kolkata-based Sen beat Mumbai-based Karan Khanna and Delhi-based Surjeet Bansal, both 24, in the finale of “Just Dance” and walked away with the winner’s trophy, a INR10 million cash award and a Maruti Suzuki Swift.

So what does he plan to do with the money?

“I want to buy a laptop, I want to learn international dance forms and perfect my style. I would dedicate myself completely to dance and excel in this art,” Sen claims excitedly.

The 18-year-old has been enthralling TV viewers as well as the judges of the show with his contemporary and hip hop dance moves, as a result of which judges Roshan, Vaibhavi Merchant and Farah Khan nicknamed him the ‘Wonder Boy’. The youngster now aims to become the “best dancer ever”.

Dance has become a part of his life but Sen explains, “My parents were never in favour of me taking it up as a profession. They were not very happy when I told them about my audition in ‘Just Dance’, but now their perceptions have changed and they support me completely.”

Sen credits Bollywood ‘god of dance’ Roshan for whatever he has learned.” Roshan has been my biggest inspiration. I used to look at his videos and learn steps. I also saw choreographer Ganesh Hedge videos to practice the steps,” states Sen, who dropped out of school after 10^th grade to learn dance. 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2011.