Hyderabadi Hip-Hop artist making waves

It is a strange coincidence that the initials of the hip-hop artist Sanjay match with those of the legendary Michael Jackson, there is a long way though for the 28-year-old Sanjay MJ to get into the league of the one and only MJ, but he is taking the hip-hop, house, popping, salsa and Bachata scene by storm.

Sanjay started his professional career in 2011 and started participating in several competitions and has won many. He had his own studio in the city. Fresh from winning the Afro Style Pro Kizomba Championship in Malaysia and Asia Open Championship in Salsa Pro, Solo Pro. He plans to travel four countries this year for various competitions. Sanjay shares his journey with The Hans India. “Since childhood, I was into dancing.

I also acted in many Telugu TV serials like ‘Kidz Zindabad’ on DD Metro and reality shows as a kid, but dancing is something which I have been more passionate about. I always wanted to do creative things - I used to play for a band, I worked with acting theatre called ‘Echo India’.

Then movie happened suddenly. I acted in a couple of films. But dance is something which I wanted to focus on, always; I dropped my acting career and job and I quit my MBA Financial for dance.”

“I want people to take dancing more seriously. Parents should encourage their kids to do whatever they are interested in. Even though education is important, these activities are important too,” he adds.

Extracts from interview:
What is your signature style of dancing? Which style do you most prefer?
I do six styles hip-hop, house, popping, amp house, salsa, bachata, and kizomba. I also mix all the styles while dancing. I am a trial and error person. I learn new dance moves, make mistakes and later improve on them.

I like all the styles but if I had to choose I will select popping and house; house is a style of dance form that comes from New York country, it has a lot of foot work with a lot of groves.

You said you won the Afro Style Pro Kizomba Championship in Malaysia and Asia Open Championship in Salsa Pro, Solo Pro, Kizomba Pro in IIDC Bangalore? Share a bit about the experience?

This time I took armature category group to the competition and this was Asian championship which was held in Bengaluru in month of July. We won six categories - I won in Salsa Solo, I and my partner from Pune won second in Bachata. And then I and my partner from Hyderabad won Jazz.

I also have students from Kerala who won the kizomba at armature level. From there we got selected for Malaysia Championship. Last week of July we won the Asian championship award in Malaysia. It was one of the best competitions. The competitors were tough and everyone was working very hard. My experience was amazing and inspiring.

Who is your inspiration?
Of course my parents, mostly my father; he used to dance along with me and mother used to support me a lot. She always pushed me to participate in cultural activities at school and colleges. Coming to celebrities my first inspiration is Bruce Lee because I am into Martial Arts. My other big inspiration is Michael Jackson (MJ).

By Heena Mishra