‘Shakira’s hot, but Madonna’s amazing!’

Well, that’s Sandip Soparrkar for you. Candid and cordial. Having grabbed attention for his connection (dance, of course) with Hollywood hotties such as Shakira, Beyonce Knowles, Madonna Britney Spears and even football legend Maradona, Sandip seems quite content with life. “Things are happening and I am happy about how they are moving. Dance takes care of half of your life,” says Sandip.

A single father, who adopted a two-year-old boy, Sandip feels the society is selfish and to some extent racial when it comes to adopting a baby. “It took me four years to be able to adopt a baby. First of all, I am single and a man. That was the major hurdle. A single woman has to undergo three steps, whereas the law of land has laid 42 steps for a man to be able to adopt a child. And that too, a single man can only adopt a male child. Added to this, once I passed this acid test, people used to advise me to adopt a fair child. Why? Because I am fair,” Sandip shares.

Life seems to have taken another good turn after his son Arjun entered his life. “It’s been wonderful to see Arjun grow. He’s one and a half year old and I love him. He is not a dancer. And I don’t want to make him one. I want to give him a good life.” According to Sandip, adopting a child and giving a better life to a child makes more sense than donating money. He seems to be enjoying fatherhood, as he says, “I am going to buy something for my son from Ahmedabad.”

During the economic slowdown, Sandip feels, “dance helps reduce stress levels. And believe me, the number of people who come to dance has increased when I conduct a workshop in these two months.”

Having trained ‘Bootylicious’ Beyonce, hip-shaker Shakira, Sandip has choreographed Britney Spears’ song Womanizer. In his kitty right now is the Hollywood flick Nine starring Penelope Cruz and Nicole Kidman. So who is the hottest of all these celebrities? “Shakira. No doubt about it. But I really admire Madonna for her appeal and being able to maintain a toned up figure, which is quite difficult a task. When I met her, I was amazed to see how young she looked. At 50 she looked like a 30-year old.

Excerpt from the article in http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com