A telemarketer with head-spinning skills

By day, B-boy Skinny, as he is known, works at First Gulf Bank in telemarketing, where he goes by his real name of Mohammed Sajeeb Chowdhury. After hours, he's a dancer. Here he talks about having skills other than dancing and why he is so in demand at corporate events.

What is B-boying exactly? And how did you get into it?

I started about four-and-a-half years back when I was about 16. One of my friends used to stand on his hands but I never knew what you called it. Breakdancing is all about … you can pop and lock; you can liquid dance and wave. I was more interested in B-Boying … it's all about spinning. You can spin on your head, back, do windmills. I saw people spinning on their heads and I just trained myself. I learnt it from YouTube once I got to know the actual name of it. But for the past two years I've done all dancing styles.

And you make money from this?

I was breakdancing and a crew saw me and wanted me to dance with them, at a showcase. Out of that [the lead dancers] taught me Indian-style dancing. Then I started with an events company. I am a freelancer now. I could support myself just from dancing but an alternative is always good. Over there [at First Gulf Bank] I work from 9 'til 2. Basically, what I would usually be doing during that time in the day is sleeping. So why not utilise [the time]? I get some more money and on top of that I am getting an experience that is going to help me in the future. If I am not able to dance I still have my skills.

Before dancing took over, you were studying, right?

I was doing a bachelor's in business.

It seems that you have some hectic times.

October was a month that in 25 days I did 112 shows. I was off from work for a month on annual leave. I started with Gitex Shopper from September 29 to October 6. Then I did a few shows. I did Dubai International Dance Festival for two days. I was part of a flash mob for a Joyalukkas event in Wafi centre. Gitex [for trade visitors] was from October 14-18. Then I had a break for two or three days and had a couple of private events I was invited to. Then from October 26 to November 4 I was dancing at Ferrari World. That was a good month.

You perform at a lot of corporate events. Why is that?

If you are having an exhibition, everyone is doing the same thing. And [businesses] always want to be different. If you are walking around and see a guy spinning on his hands you'll be like, "Wow, what's he doing?" and you'll want to see it.

What do you want to do next?

I want to travel abroad and study there and get into dancing. If not, I will start studying again and keep dancing - maybe open up my own studio and teach.

lgutcher@thenational.ae

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