Dance Like No One's Watching

Dance (and music) has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember; I'm sure if you deep scroll into my instagram you will find an ancient video of my first dance step (it was more of a two-step with some sort of doggy leg lift). Needless to say that even though I wasn't the necessarily "good" or "great" at it, it was a dance step nonetheless.

I didn't start out as even a decent dancer or performer, in fact you can ask my toughest critic, my mother, and she'll tell you that I was the poster child for "a dancer with two left feet." But probably like you, I loved to dance. I was stiff, uncoordinated, lacked grace and fluidity. I enrolled in community Bollywood classes as a child where there wasn't much individual focus for technique improvement or growth, so I would attend the dance class and go home, lock myself in my room and practice for hours on end, not even letting my family walk in on me. It was a sacred space that no one was allowed to enter. I would practice until the steps felt like they flowed right through my body effortlessly, until I truly felt the feeling of the lyrics & the music not just in my mind and heart but through my body. I practiced by myself without any person to provide constructive feedback or mentor me and didn't tell anyone until I did my first performance at a community cultural show, it was the first time I saw the most amazing look of shock & pleasant surprise on my family's faces.

From there I began what you could call formal training with a Dance Institute where I gained a foundational base in performing arts; positions like first ballet, chasse, pas de bourree, rond de jambe, and concepts such as musicality. This grew my dance repertoire leading to a deeper understanding of music and movement.

Why am I telling you this? Because although I have been fortunately blessed to have had amazing gurus, teachers, role models, mentors and peers in dance and performing arts, I often look back and think about how isolated I was, and if I had someone to teach me the things that ended up discovering on my own, before I began formal training, that would have significantly "fast-tracked" my journey in dance & self discovery.

And so part of what I would like to do is give back to the community; give back my time & knowledge to help young & aspiring artists to gain a deeper understanding about music, movement, and the art of dance; be it to a hippy-trippy track, a devotional piece, or a ballad. There is a song for every mood and for every emotion and if you can move to it... That is ART!

Okay! Time for my Announcement/Self Promotional Plug: I am extremely humbled to be collaborating with Naach for Fun for a OPEN LEVEL dance workshop on October 15, 2022 from 1pm - 4pm, as Sue's vision perfectly aligns with my dream of fostering a open & safe space to explore music and movement without reservation or fear.

You can register for the workshop on Eventbrite, just click here. We strongly encourage those that feel they "can't dance" or are hesitant to dance in public to join this session because there is no time like the present to start something new!