One this Teacher’s day – We feature India’s best teachers and trainers across different fields. We’re proud to feature Mr Shiamak Davar as India’s prominent and arguably the best Dance Trainer. Shiamak has not just been a great performer but a fantastic trainer and teacher for thousands of budding dancers. He has gone beyond the boundaries to fulfil his dream to make Western dance learning easy and accessible to common Indians. On Teacher’s day, Teacherji salutes his spirit and wishes him the best for his future projects.
Teacherji team reached out to Mr Shiamak for a short interview on occasion of teacher’s day and he graciously accepted our request. Here is the excerpt of the interview.
Tell us something about your journey of learning dance?
Since childhood I have been inclined towards performing arts. I used to sing and dance for my friends and family. I was a legend in my living room! When I was growing up, my interest in performing arts also became stronger.
I went abroad to pursue my acting and singing interests. Honestly dance was not my first preference then. One day I was passing by a dance school and what I saw through the glass walls interested me. I went and enrolled for one session. That’s where I realized the immense joy & satisfaction that dance gave me. I decided to come back to India and spread to joy to everyone here. There has been no looking back since then. The learning has been a continuous, its every single day!
What made you choose Dance as a career?
Like I said I have been interested in performing arts since a very young age! Dance for me is my life, I couldn’t have possibly thought of doing anything else.
How the idea of setting up your academy (SDIPA) came up? Can you share little history behind it?
When I started out 26 years back, there was not a single school in the country offering proper western dance education. In fact people laughed at my idea of imparting education on western dance to people in our country. that led to the genesis of my dance school – Shiamak Davar’s Institute for the Performing Arts, because I wanted to create a forum where students can come and learn the proper techniques and finer nuances of a variety of International dance style. I didn’t want them to go through the struggle that I went through!
Do you think that creativity is a birth gift or can you cultivate that? What would you recommend people to discover their dancing talent?
Creativity can be a natural gift however that gift needs to be honed and cultivated for it to take shape.
I think everyone has a dancer in them and hence I came up with the motto of my school – Have Feet. Will Dance.
I strongly recommend that anyone interested in dancing should take training in the art form first, only once a dancer is trained well can he go on to spread his knowledge to the rest of the world.
Who has/have been your favorite student(s)? How did you discover and molded them?
It would be unfair for me to pick. All my students are special and I love them all immensely and equally.
What do you like most about working with others? What least?
I think working with others helps one to broaden their perspective and see things in a different light.
What is the next big thing you’re looking forward to?
The one thing that I am really looking forward to is the first-of-its kind program that my school is offering in the country. It is called the One Year Intensive Dance Certification Program where I would be providing rigorous full time training to dance enthusiasts for a period of one year after which they would be given an opportunity to be a part of my dance company. For this I have also tied up with Debbie Allen (a dancing legend & The Culture Connect Ambassador in US) and her school – Debbie Allen’s Dance Academy (DADA). I would be bringing down the best international faculty for this for my students so that they gain and learn not only from the leading instructors of SDIPA but also get immense international exposure.
What would be your message to dance learners in India on Teacher’s day?
Be yourself. No matter what they say! !
Join Shiamak Classes – Visit Shiamak Davar’s Official Website.
Bangalore – 080-41317661 , Pune- 020- 30921098, Mumbai – 022- 61543000, Delhi – 011- 26296590
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