Tapping your inner calling

Satyaki Saha is a professional Salsa dancer since 2010. She has trained in Jazz and Ballet. Her partner, Sovit Biswal and she are the directors of Latin dance school called ‘Mambo City India’, based in Kolkata. They teach Mambo (Salsa on 2), Bachata and Kizomba.

They travelled and performed at various Salsa congresses across the country and have also performed at International Salsa Congresses such as Hong Kong Salsa Festival 2011, Berlin Salsa Congress in 2012 and 2013, and Fujairah Latin Festival in 2014.

They also featured as guest performers on national television in the show ‘Nacha Baliye’ season 5. She is also a Guinness World Record holder in the category of ‘maximum number of Swing Dance Flips’, in the show that had taken place in 2011 in Colors hosted by Preity Zinta. Sharing her success story Satyaki Saha has pointed out how dedication and hard work can help one turning dreams into reality.

Tell us about your stint in this field?
I was always passionate about dancing, but it got serious in 2003 when I attended three sessions of Shiamak Davar Funks. After that, in 2005, I was acquainted with Salsa style of dancing at a technical workshop. I took it as a hobby and later assisted my instructor till 2007. In 2008, I quit Salsa for a few months while I was training in Jazz and Kathak.

Then I auditioned at Attakalri, a prestigious dance institute in Bangalore and I passed it. However, my real calling was Salsa! I decided to take it up again and seriously gave it a last shot before actually quitting. My partner Sovit Biswal, who is now my husband jumped into it with me and partnered me.

Together we competed in 2009 in All India International Salsa Congress (IISC) in Bangalore and secured ‘2nd Runners Up’ spot. In 2010, we started our own dance studio ‘Mambo City India’ because we were dancing the Mambo (Salsa New York Style).

Tell us about your experience in ‘Nach Baliye’?
My partner and I were selected as the only non-celebrity couple part of ‘Talash-e-Baliye’ in 2013. We received good response from both public and judges, but unfortunately, we had to quit the show due to personal reasons. However, it put us on the Indian map as a Salsa couple with the masses.

Share about your Guinness World Record?
In 2011, I got a call from a friend living in Bangalore to be part of Guinness World Record ‘Ab India Thodega’ on Colors TV. He had got the offer and he selected me as along with two other girls to break and create a new record in the category of ‘Maximum number of swing dance flips’ in one minute. We broke the old record of 33 with 39 flips. Those things need a proper technique so we learned it perfectly in almost six days and on the seventh day we had our final performance.

What style do you teach in your dancing school?
I am primarily a Mambo dancer. But I am trained to teach Bachata and Kizomba too. I teach styles like Reggaeton and Dancehall as a solo style. Swag on VOL 1, 2 & 3 was curated by Vijaya Tupurani to promote Reggaeton in Hyderabad and the numbers have gone up each time, making it a super successful event. I am very impressed with the way youngsters are taking it up.

Reggaeton is a high energy dance from the streets of Panama, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. The music is catchy and is a party-style dance form. Apart from dancing, we organised three dance festivals in Kolkata called International Dance Fiesta (IDF 2013, 2014 and 2015). Sovit and I have organised a festival called Latin Soul Fiesta in 2016 in Pune. And it is one of the biggest Latin festivals in the country.

What are your future plans?
We already started one of our biggest projects ‘Latin Soul Fiesta’ second and it will happen 2018. In the three-day, we also scholarships to deserving candidates, who have a passion for dance but they couldn’t afford. So we run scholarship programmes for them, and that is our long-term future plan. Our next workshop will be held in Bangalore and Ahmedabad.

By Heena Mishra