Life has come a full circle for Subhasis Pattnaik and quite poetically, if we might add. You see, as a teenager, the youngster used to train for dance at Anu's Dance Freak in Patia, under the watchful eye of Founder and Director Anupam Nayak. And now, Subhasis has a chain of dance studios of his own called Leaps On Beats. In October this year, he took over Anu's Dance Freak and turned it into his third studio. "It was a very emotional moment for me because I started my career at Anu's Dance Freak and now, it's my third studio," says the 26-year-old. But a new studio in the times of COVID? "Business is all about taking risks and if we want to grow, we need to take risks," he says matter-of-factly. Not just that, he shares that he is renovating his first studio in Acharya Vihar and promises that it will be the best dance studio in Bhubaneswar.
The climb has been slow and steady for Subhasis. It started back in 2017, when he was at crossroads about taking up the placement offers he had from Wipro and Cognizant or pursuing dance. He picked the latter and that has made all the difference. He taught four children at a government school and then 30 students at another rented place before he invested all that he had in his first studio. The second studio in Khandagiri was started last year and now, he has set foot in Patia as well. "Between all this, every three months, I would save and travel to Delhi or Bengaluru and stay there for a month or two to learn more via workshops conducted by dancers of international repute," says the artist. The idea was to learn the basics of all dance forms and build a strong foundation.
Apart from the studio in Patia, Subhasis' latest investment has been a DSLR. And as soon he tells us this, we understand the secret behind the killer dance videos that he has been putting out on their YouTube channel, Leaps On Beats Dance Studio, the latest of which is them grooving to the beats of Burjkhalifa, the song from the Akshay Kumar-starrer Laxmmi Bomb. "The dance videos are a part of our promotions so that as soon as Corona pandemic is over, we can spring back into full action," he shares. Currently, they are taking both online and offline classes.
"Why do we have to bifurcate dance into different styles, just like we have divided people on the basis of religion? Dance is dance, it is something that moves us," says Subhasis who has mastered many dance forms.
Watch their videos and groove to them:
For more on them, check out facebook.com/leapsonbeatsdancestudio
