Former Nepean dance instructor works towards own studio.
Duanse Bellot placed first in the pro am category at the national Shine Dance Competition.
Submitted photo
From his humble beginnings as part of the MJ Boys – a dance troupe of students from St. Patrick’s Catholic High School – to winning diamond in the Shine Dance Competition in Deerhurst, Ont., Duanse Bellot is moving up in the world.
The 27-year-old freestyle dancer auditioned for the TV show Canada’s Got Talent on Sept. 23 and will be starting work at Le Dance Lab in Plantagenet, Ont. in the next few weeks. He said he is also in talks with a local YM/YWCA to develop some dance programming.
An ambitious man, Bellot started campaigning for his bid on the Canadian TV talent program with a Facebook group that had more than 1,000 members in the week before his audition.
While Bellot doesn’t have any formal dance training, he cut his teeth at places like the Innovation School of Dance in Nepean, where he worked as a dance instructor and placed first in the pro am category at the national Shine Dance Competition.
Bellot mixes his own music and makes everything a dance, tapping out a beat on the table, during a Wednesday-morning interview at a Second Cup coffee.
What people like about his style is it’s unpredictably, Bellot said.
“I plan the music out ahead of time,” he said. “But not the dance. If I have everything too set, then I can’t react to what’s happening around me or the audience.”
When he isn’t on stage, Bellot said he likes to teach.
“As soon as I learn something I want to teach someone else,” he said.
That drive lead Bellot to teach workshops and seminars across the city, and landed him his gig at the Innovation School of Dance – which is a dance school owned in part by Barrhaven resident Tanya Geary and her longtime friend Denise Turpin.
jennifer.mcintosh@metroland.com