‘My journey as a dancer began with TV auditions’

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 14

Dance, that only used to be a hobby, has now become a lifetime passion for a 17-year old city lad, who has again brought the city into limelight. Tanav Jalhan, a Kishanpura resident was recently declared as the winner of the India International Dance Congress which is also deemed as Asia Open championship.

Moreover, this was his third perpetual score for the same championship and with this, he has become the first salsa dancer to attain a hat-trick in the latin semi-pro salsa dance category.

Apart from winning this event, he had also participated in the same gender duet salsa category in the Asian Open Championship, where he again stood first with his mentor Arshdeep Singh.

Tanav started dancing at the age of 3 and considered his mother Aarti Jalhan as his first teacher. He said, his dancing journey started when he first appeared for the auditions of a private TV channel.

He stood fourth among the two hundred participants for the auditions of Honhar Dancing Super stars. In 2012, he participated in the Dance Sports Association of Punjab, a state-level championship in which he again ranked first, followed by “National Sports Dance Federation”, a nation-wide dance championship in the same year.

Tanav said, when he was 15, he appeared for his first Asian Dance Championship and since he was the youngest in the competition, no one expected him to win, but he surprised everyone with his moves and eventually bagged the trophy.

Presently, Tanav is studying in Class 12 and is the headboy at Shiv Jyoti Public School. In-addition, he also runs his dancing studio.