The golden boy of artistic skating

HYDERABAD: Anup Kumar Yama is on a roll. After having recently bagged two gold medals at the 11th National Ice Skating Championship in Gurgaon, he also won World Championship in Artistic Roller Skating at Taiwan, apart from grabbing gold medals in various international games. He has also trained Bollywood diva Deepika Padukone and Neil Nitin Mukesh for their movie, Lafangay Parinday.For the 29-year-old Hyderabadi, skating comes as naturally as breathing. The skating bug bit him when his father used to skate for recreation. After the sport came to India in the 60s, his brother turned a skater and today, coaches Anup.
Artistic skating
On the smooth surface of the courtyard at his Marredpally house, Anup shows off some loops and jumps in his roller skates. “Artistic skating is an amalgam of dance, music and gymnastic moves,” he explains, adding, “When we perform, we tell a story, folktale or a modern one. The music and dance has to be in sync with the story that we tell through our moves, jumps and loops.” Explaining the history of the sport, he says that it originated in Scandinavian countries, as the lakes would be frozen. “For travelling from one place to another people would skate in frozen lakes, and later, people infused song and music in it,” adds Anup, taking off his roller skaters that cost him lakhs, and are imported from Italy. “We do not have wooden skating rinks in India so these skates get damaged easily,” Anup laments.
A performance art
For performances, Anup wears tops that have intricate designs and a lot of bling — and these cost as much as 500 Euros! But why wear bling? “Since we perform indoors under a lot of flashy lights, bling is required on clothes to add to the drama in the rink,” he smiles. Explaining in detail the music and dance forms used on the rink, he says, “It is usually Western music and dance forms like waltz, tango and folk. I usually select European music, but once I selected music tracks from Taal and Dhoom 2. It was a lot of fun!” Zooming around the rink on wheels isn’t an easy job — it involves laws of physics and gymnastic moves. So it comes as a surprise when he says he likes pair skating. “It’s true. I do like pair skating. It’s all about laws of physics. Often, we throw the girl in the air and catch her. While it’s fun and looks good, it can be dangerous, especially for the girl,” he says.
Tryst with Bollywood
The two-month training he gave to Deepika Padukone and Neil Nitin Mukesh for Lafangay Parinday clearly is dear to him, for when he talks about it, his eyes light up. “Deepika has such grace when she dances, and because of that, she was good at skating. She told me that she’d love to come to Hyderabad and learn more from me,” blushes Anup, who appeared in the movie for six minutes for the skating performance.
Waiting for the Arjuna Award
So far, Anup has bagged 80 gold medals in roller skating, 10 in ice skating and another 10 in international games. While ice skating is included in the Olympics, artistic roller skating is yet to find its place, he says, lamenting that though he’s secured the 177 points which qualifies him for Arjuna Award, he hasn’t received it so far. “It’s shameful that a sportsperson has to ask for the award! People with very low points have got it, while I didn’t. I have spoken to the ministry of sports. But they said artistic skating isn’t very popular, because of which I haven’t received the award,” he rues.