when I was a little girl I was
fascinated with anything that moved the
taillights on the vehicles as this
zigzag their way through crowded streets
the way the crows at my mother’s kitchen
window took flight the known leaf that
parachuted its way down the little
raindrop that could and did make its way
all the way to the edge of the window
the flutter of freshly washed clothes on
the line
the ungainly thud of the morning
newspaper at our door for as long as I
can remember I love to spin round and
round and round and round and round till
I was so dizzy but in that psychedelic
feeling in my head I found complete and
utter peace for as long as I can
remember I loved to run run so fast that
I could see the wind washing past my
face and everything else was a blur for
as long as I can remember I loved the
sensation of blood rushing to my face
when I was hanging upside down at the
jungle gym little did I know that I was
slowly finding my destiny a destiny that
keeps me in constant movement
interspersed with pockets of stillness
like the little chocolate pieces in a
warm fuzzy cookie a destiny that is so
much larger than me a destiny that helps
me shape young minds every day a destiny
that allows me to experiment with this
amazing recipe of jumps and turns and
leaps and pirouettes and slides and
glides and what not a does a destiny
where the universe has placed all her
faith in me and I in her it overwhelms
me sometimes that I have chosen this
path and that this path has chosen me as
one of my favorite poets Rumi once
famously said dance when you’re broken
open dance if you’ve turned the bandage
off dance in the middle of the fighting
dance in your blood dance when you’re
perfectly free this quote sums up my
journey with in and through dance it’s
very difficult for me to describe myself
without the word dance in my life I know
the current trend is to say no we don’t
know what want to know what you do we
want to know who you are as a person but
my response to that would be this is who
I am I dance I dance when I’m angry I
dance when I’m sad I dance when I’m
conflicted when I’m confused I dance
when I have to crisis manage and find a
solution I dance when I’m stone-cold
sober and I dance when I’m drunk on
three large whiskeys I dance all the
time I move all the time it was very
hard for me to get myself to control my
movements even today but you know this
doesn’t make me very unique unlike every
other toddler or baby in the world today
if we closely observe babies and little
children we see that they are dancing
all the time they’re moving all the time
they’re little pudgy fists moving up and
down their feet stomping on the ground
all the time turning twirling falling
jumping I like to think of myself as the
baby that never grew up
you know starting a dance company after
13 years in dance in professional dance
when you have a purely artistic brain is
both a fantastically great idea and a
phenomenally bad one because I was now
responsible for every young girl that
wanted to come and learn from me and
perform with my company I was
responsible for her physical mental and
emotional well-being and at the same
time I had to take care of myself
and my needs because what I do is not
just teach dance it’s also to use dance
in life how do we use dance to crisis
manage how do we use dance to find
solutions how do we use dance to calm
ourselves down how do we use dance to
celebrate and at the same time I had to
teach myself management finance said
this is the design costume design
production technical know-how publicity
marketing branding and the list goes on
because we are all as choreographers we
have to be all in all our garages but
for me the reward comes when I’m in that
studio in that space creating new work
creating new stories to put on stage and
I see my work take shape almost like a
sculptors piece coming to life that’s my
reward when I know that I can try every
cookie thing every funny experiment in
dance and movement and these young girls
will try it gamely with me that’s my
reward my approach to contemporary dance
and movement has been an adventure to
say the least I credit this to my 18
years of exposure to so many different
schools of thought so many different
styles of dance and so many truly
inspirational teachers around the world
that I realized that I have I was
creating work that was influenced by all
of this and not by one discipline or one
particular style so when somebody asked
me in 2013 what is it that you guys do
what style do you perform what do you
choreograph what do you teach I found it
very hard to answer them my answer would
be every time would be to say oh you
know we do everything but um I realized
that that that’s not something that I
could keep saying so we coined the term
global dance fusion I did not realize
how truly global it was until 2013 which
was when we were selected as a company
to represent India at the Commonwealth
Youth dance festival in Scotland
right before the Commonwealth Games
that’s asks right before we left and
these are some images from the
performance itself we performed to a
standing ovation 14 young women
all of them who’ve never traveled abroad
for dance they have traveled abroad with
family but never traveled abroad for
dance experiencing a four-day festival
with 400 young dancers from around the
world from countries like Malta New
Zealand learning all kinds of styles it
was a truly enriching experience not
just for me as the teacher and as a
choreographer but for the dancers as
well and that was one of the biggest
milestones for us as a company and when
we came back we realized that okay now
what what we what do we go on to and we
ended up successfully doing four
productions three of which were self
scripted the first one was called leap
into life it is about an artist who’s
boxed in by society and chooses to fight
back without fear the second one was
called leap into love was about betrayal
obsession first love long lasting love
all kinds of love the third one was the
seeker a personal favorite of mine
it was the tale of a modern-day Buddha
questioning war technology
last and trying to find solutions and
answers the fourth one was another
personal favorite of mine but not self
scripted it’s the very famous universal
classic love story The Great Gatsby we
brought it to life through dance theater
on this very stage and what I want to
say is after doing four productions I
realized that I was somebody was as I
think as every artist who can relate
I was very critical of my own work and I
would look back at work that I had done
six months ago and cringe what was I
thinking but then I chanced upon this
wonderful quote by Ira Glass nobody
tells this to people who are beginners I
wish someone had told me all of us who
do creative work we get into it because
we have good taste but there is this gap
for the first couple of years you make
stuff it’s just not that good it’s
trying to be good it has potential but
if it’s it’s not but your taste the
thing that got you into the game that’s
still killer and your taste is why your
work disappoints you a lot of people
never get past this phase they quit this
word really reached out to me this
particular sentence really reached out
to me quit I’ve been somebody who’s
never given up never quit and if
somebody tells me no you can’t do that I
would do it I was a typical rebellious
child who when told not to touch
something would go and touch it so I
think what we do as adults as grown-ups
is we tamp down that curiosity we tamp
down that rebel inside us and we quit
there I’ve been days when I have been so
disillusioned so frustrated that I’m
okay I’m going to pack my bags I’m
quitting this who’s gonna go live in the
Himalayas but I’ve realized that one of
the best things about dancing is that I
just have to do it to know why I love it
so even if I’m at a stage where I’m
really dissolution and losing my faith
in what I do I have to just do it to get
back my faith and I think this is the
case with almost everything that we do
and it’s not just the arts I think if we
look if we approach everything we do in
life with passion then an automobile
engineer is equal to a choreographer a
scientist is a poet and an engineer
could be equal to a sculptor the
comparisons can be constantly made I
think the problem with us is our
approach that we look at things as
studies jobs obligations duties when we
approach life with joyous abandon and
completely no boundaries because the
only boundaries you have are the ones
you give yourself there are no visible
tangible lines or boxes around us so
these are the only all these boundaries
and boxes are the ones that we give
ourselves or that society gives us when
we break past that conditioning when we
fight past that invisible line that we
have told ourselves that we cannot cross
is when magic happens
before I go I’d like to invite the
lovely dancers from my company to
present something that we’ve done in the
dirty contemporary style it’s a it’s a
Bollywood number but the choreography is
fused with Street jazz elements and
contemporary styling we want to leave
you happy joyous and in the mood to
dance and we want to wake you up a
little bit after your lunch are we ready
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
Oh
[Music]
[Music]
Oh
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
you
[Applause]
fascinated with anything that moved the
taillights on the vehicles as this
zigzag their way through crowded streets
the way the crows at my mother’s kitchen
window took flight the known leaf that
parachuted its way down the little
raindrop that could and did make its way
all the way to the edge of the window
the flutter of freshly washed clothes on
the line
the ungainly thud of the morning
newspaper at our door for as long as I
can remember I love to spin round and
round and round and round and round till
I was so dizzy but in that psychedelic
feeling in my head I found complete and
utter peace for as long as I can
remember I loved to run run so fast that
I could see the wind washing past my
face and everything else was a blur for
as long as I can remember I loved the
sensation of blood rushing to my face
when I was hanging upside down at the
jungle gym little did I know that I was
slowly finding my destiny a destiny that
keeps me in constant movement
interspersed with pockets of stillness
like the little chocolate pieces in a
warm fuzzy cookie a destiny that is so
much larger than me a destiny that helps
me shape young minds every day a destiny
that allows me to experiment with this
amazing recipe of jumps and turns and
leaps and pirouettes and slides and
glides and what not a does a destiny
where the universe has placed all her
faith in me and I in her it overwhelms
me sometimes that I have chosen this
path and that this path has chosen me as
one of my favorite poets Rumi once
famously said dance when you’re broken
open dance if you’ve turned the bandage
off dance in the middle of the fighting
dance in your blood dance when you’re
perfectly free this quote sums up my
journey with in and through dance it’s
very difficult for me to describe myself
without the word dance in my life I know
the current trend is to say no we don’t
know what want to know what you do we
want to know who you are as a person but
my response to that would be this is who
I am I dance I dance when I’m angry I
dance when I’m sad I dance when I’m
conflicted when I’m confused I dance
when I have to crisis manage and find a
solution I dance when I’m stone-cold
sober and I dance when I’m drunk on
three large whiskeys I dance all the
time I move all the time it was very
hard for me to get myself to control my
movements even today but you know this
doesn’t make me very unique unlike every
other toddler or baby in the world today
if we closely observe babies and little
children we see that they are dancing
all the time they’re moving all the time
they’re little pudgy fists moving up and
down their feet stomping on the ground
all the time turning twirling falling
jumping I like to think of myself as the
baby that never grew up
you know starting a dance company after
13 years in dance in professional dance
when you have a purely artistic brain is
both a fantastically great idea and a
phenomenally bad one because I was now
responsible for every young girl that
wanted to come and learn from me and
perform with my company I was
responsible for her physical mental and
emotional well-being and at the same
time I had to take care of myself
and my needs because what I do is not
just teach dance it’s also to use dance
in life how do we use dance to crisis
manage how do we use dance to find
solutions how do we use dance to calm
ourselves down how do we use dance to
celebrate and at the same time I had to
teach myself management finance said
this is the design costume design
production technical know-how publicity
marketing branding and the list goes on
because we are all as choreographers we
have to be all in all our garages but
for me the reward comes when I’m in that
studio in that space creating new work
creating new stories to put on stage and
I see my work take shape almost like a
sculptors piece coming to life that’s my
reward when I know that I can try every
cookie thing every funny experiment in
dance and movement and these young girls
will try it gamely with me that’s my
reward my approach to contemporary dance
and movement has been an adventure to
say the least I credit this to my 18
years of exposure to so many different
schools of thought so many different
styles of dance and so many truly
inspirational teachers around the world
that I realized that I have I was
creating work that was influenced by all
of this and not by one discipline or one
particular style so when somebody asked
me in 2013 what is it that you guys do
what style do you perform what do you
choreograph what do you teach I found it
very hard to answer them my answer would
be every time would be to say oh you
know we do everything but um I realized
that that that’s not something that I
could keep saying so we coined the term
global dance fusion I did not realize
how truly global it was until 2013 which
was when we were selected as a company
to represent India at the Commonwealth
Youth dance festival in Scotland
right before the Commonwealth Games
that’s asks right before we left and
these are some images from the
performance itself we performed to a
standing ovation 14 young women
all of them who’ve never traveled abroad
for dance they have traveled abroad with
family but never traveled abroad for
dance experiencing a four-day festival
with 400 young dancers from around the
world from countries like Malta New
Zealand learning all kinds of styles it
was a truly enriching experience not
just for me as the teacher and as a
choreographer but for the dancers as
well and that was one of the biggest
milestones for us as a company and when
we came back we realized that okay now
what what we what do we go on to and we
ended up successfully doing four
productions three of which were self
scripted the first one was called leap
into life it is about an artist who’s
boxed in by society and chooses to fight
back without fear the second one was
called leap into love was about betrayal
obsession first love long lasting love
all kinds of love the third one was the
seeker a personal favorite of mine
it was the tale of a modern-day Buddha
questioning war technology
last and trying to find solutions and
answers the fourth one was another
personal favorite of mine but not self
scripted it’s the very famous universal
classic love story The Great Gatsby we
brought it to life through dance theater
on this very stage and what I want to
say is after doing four productions I
realized that I was somebody was as I
think as every artist who can relate
I was very critical of my own work and I
would look back at work that I had done
six months ago and cringe what was I
thinking but then I chanced upon this
wonderful quote by Ira Glass nobody
tells this to people who are beginners I
wish someone had told me all of us who
do creative work we get into it because
we have good taste but there is this gap
for the first couple of years you make
stuff it’s just not that good it’s
trying to be good it has potential but
if it’s it’s not but your taste the
thing that got you into the game that’s
still killer and your taste is why your
work disappoints you a lot of people
never get past this phase they quit this
word really reached out to me this
particular sentence really reached out
to me quit I’ve been somebody who’s
never given up never quit and if
somebody tells me no you can’t do that I
would do it I was a typical rebellious
child who when told not to touch
something would go and touch it so I
think what we do as adults as grown-ups
is we tamp down that curiosity we tamp
down that rebel inside us and we quit
there I’ve been days when I have been so
disillusioned so frustrated that I’m
okay I’m going to pack my bags I’m
quitting this who’s gonna go live in the
Himalayas but I’ve realized that one of
the best things about dancing is that I
just have to do it to know why I love it
so even if I’m at a stage where I’m
really dissolution and losing my faith
in what I do I have to just do it to get
back my faith and I think this is the
case with almost everything that we do
and it’s not just the arts I think if we
look if we approach everything we do in
life with passion then an automobile
engineer is equal to a choreographer a
scientist is a poet and an engineer
could be equal to a sculptor the
comparisons can be constantly made I
think the problem with us is our
approach that we look at things as
studies jobs obligations duties when we
approach life with joyous abandon and
completely no boundaries because the
only boundaries you have are the ones
you give yourself there are no visible
tangible lines or boxes around us so
these are the only all these boundaries
and boxes are the ones that we give
ourselves or that society gives us when
we break past that conditioning when we
fight past that invisible line that we
have told ourselves that we cannot cross
is when magic happens
before I go I’d like to invite the
lovely dancers from my company to
present something that we’ve done in the
dirty contemporary style it’s a it’s a
Bollywood number but the choreography is
fused with Street jazz elements and
contemporary styling we want to leave
you happy joyous and in the mood to
dance and we want to wake you up a
little bit after your lunch are we ready
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
Oh
[Music]
[Music]
Oh
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
you
[Applause]
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