Planned Moves

He says that during the dance sessions,he realised that Indians were behind performing artistes from other nationalities in international styles of dancing. In fact,in Australia,he re-learnt Salsa all over again. “Sub-consciously,I would keep going back to what I had learned in India and Oliver would say ‘It’s not like that,Akshay,it’s like this!’ and I’d have to start all over again,” he remembers.

Within a few months of training,Unecha enrolled for the championship on Pineda’s advice. Unfortunately,as he recalls,he had lost all hopes of winning the championship when his dance partner fell sick and had to drop out of the championship. Though he found a new partner some time later,he had just two weeks – to practice with his new partner,Sophie.

The championship was a nail-biter till the end – while Unecha and Sophie tied with another couple in one of the qualifying rounds,they won the final round by just one point. “We had a very tough competition; all contestants were much more experienced than me. However,I strongly feel that dancing is more about passion than technique and experience and that is probably the reason I won,” says Unecha..

He will fly back to Australia in October,to begin training for the World Championship in Hong Kong in 2013. Currently in the final year in a distance course in BBA from Tripura University,Unecha also hopes to finish his under graduate studies and pursue a masters degree while training in Australia. While he has received offers for dancing professionally,he prefers to wait until he participates at the World Championship.

In the near future,he aims to open a franchisee of Pienda’s Dance School in India,so that other dance enthusiasts can pursue their passion without travelling all the way to Australia.