Contrary to the belief that a dance career is short-lived, I’d like to believe that the world is filled with opportunities, and age is only a number. You just need to keep your eyes open and think with a broad perspective.
1. Tell us more about your background and journey.
I believe, “Life is better when you dance”. Dance has always been an integral part of my evolution. I was born into an Indian Army family and brought up all over India, in varying cultures, different societies, and different arts, I have ingrained flavors of all the experiences into my dancing.
Throughout my time in India, Canada, and now in the USA, I have been very focused on creating communities through dance.
After getting an MBA in Finance from Symbiosis, I set my foot into the world of bricks and concrete and spent many years working in the capacity as a finance manager for several commercial real estate investment firms.
However, throughout my education and eleven years of corporate career, I have maintained and nurtured my love for dancing and creating communities.
Amidst all the challenges life throws at you, you need an outlet to make you feel better about yourself. To me, that is dancing!
I am also a strong believer in karma, and currently, I am on a mission to foster a sense of community through dance. In today’s world when stress and chaos have engulfed our thoughts, there is a dire need to spread to come together, spread positivity, and dance it out.
I was recently published in various social media channels and online dance vlogs for my ‘dancing through pregnancy’ series. Maternity fitness brand Fittamamma also featured me in their fitness magazine, ‘Active for two’. Link here
2. When did you first decide you wanted to pursue dancing and how did you start?
I have always been very passionate about two things in my life – Dancing and building communities, and I have carried my vision to spread the joy of Bollywood dancing to every spectrum of age, gender, religion, and nationality; with me all my life.
My goal has always been to create a safe place for every dance enthusiast out there, where there’s no judgment, no negativity, but only warm welcoming vibes. It has been my dream since I can remember, to create such a community which everyone can refer to as their ‘Happy Place’.
I started Live2Dance as a volunteer dance group 4 years ago in Seattle, where we would gather over the weekend, practice, and perform at various events. We produced two in-house 90 minutes of dance-drama shows and grew a lot in the process.
That is when I decided that I don’t want to wait any longer. There will never be a right time to follow my passion. The right time is NOW.
However, it takes immense grit, hard work, and utmost confidence in your vision to take a leap of faith and chase your dreams. It isn’t easy to let go of a steady income stream, stability, and jump into a pool of uncertainties. In 2018 I decided to quit my corporate career, and that’s when began my real hustle!
3. How do you describe Live2Dance as an idea and how did you go about executing it?
Dancing is often considered as a recreational activity and all too often overlooked for the positive physical, mental, and social health benefits. The goal at Live2Dance is not only to promote dance as a creative activity and legit workout, but also to build communities, reduce stress, and spread happiness through our fun and energizing Indian fused dance routines.
I started Live2Dance as a volunteer group 4 years ago in Seattle. Alongside a full-time job, and a toddler, I pursued my passion and slowly kept building my community. From direct marketing, posting flyers in coffee shops and bus stops, to social media marketing, I networked heavily to expand my reach.
Like everything else in life, it took immense hard work, persistence, and struggle to achieve what Live2Dance has become today. Our growth was slow, but it was beautiful.
I saw my community grow from 10 people to 60 people, each professional in their own terms (tech, doctor, real estate, etc.) who came together to dance. We performed at various cultural events, festivals, celebrations, and sometimes we created our own events – like flashmobs on busy streets.
We then took on another challenge and produced our own stage shows. Our community was growing and so was our workload. That is when I decided the time is now!
It took 7 years of convincing myself and another 2 years of convincing my husband that I can do this. I can quit my corporate job and make a living out of dance.
It is a big decision, but I had been dancing and creating a dance community around me with a full-time job, a kid, and other commitments for over a decade now. I thought to myself that if I didn’t do it now, I’ll never do it.
We are Canadian citizens, and hence, we started working with our immigration lawyer to understand which lawful route we can take to establish a business in the US.
I was recommended to pursue an E2 Visa. If you start reading up on the requirements of E2, you will get an idea of how complex the process is, especially for a middle-class person like me to attain it successfully. Generally, the applicant should be prepared to invest everything in the enterprise to have a good E2 Visa case.
We liquidated a number of our key investments in Canada and the US to meet this criterion. Then you need to demonstrate that your investment is absolutely and irrevocably committed to the business.
Meaning, it doesn’t matter if you brought the money to the US, you need to either have expended that money or demonstrate that if you don’t get this Visa, you’re at the risk of losing a sizable share of that investment. Thus began our hunt for a commercial space to lease as a dance studio for my dance studio.
Having worked in commercial real estate my entire career, I knew this wasn’t going to be easy. It took me over a year to find a property that came close to meeting my requirements.
Just when we thought we had won a big battle, we realized what an uphill task the paperwork for this application is. Writing an elaborate Business Plan, doing my market research, preparing extensive financial models with sensitivity analysis, projecting returns and syndication of funds along with a full-time job, a kid, dancing, working on a production, and a pregnancy.
Our lives revolved around this application for over a year. Our dinner conversations, our weekend plans, our holidays were all dedicated to working on this application. We didn’t have time for vacations or even think about my pregnancy. We decided to dedicate our time to our kids once we have the visa in our hands.
Weeks and months passed by. We were resolving a new issue almost every day. It was like a never-ending series of tasks. It got frustrating and there were moments when we just wanted to give up. But we had invested so much in this process, both financially and emotionally, that we wouldn’t budge.
Finally, the day came when I was called for an interview in Toronto. I was over 7months pregnant and this was my only shot. If I didn’t get this visa now, I won’t be able to travel again for the next 3 months and I would lose my leased space along with all the investments we’d made in this space. So really, I didn’t have an option to not get this visa. We didn’t have a Plan B.
I went in for my interview at the US consulate in Toronto. I felt decently confident and prepared. But to my horror, my visa was denied. The officer gave me a sheet with reasons for denial, but I was too numb to even look at it. I felt like my whole world had crashed. I didn’t know what struck me.
I got out into the chilly winter day of Toronto, stood in the middle of the road, and burst into tears. My first thought was that I had blown through so much of our savings and our kids’ future. I called my parents and husband to tell them that I didn’t get the Visa, and after consoling me for a while, we all started thinking of backup options.
The most obvious answer was, ‘move back to Canada’ and let bygones be bygones. Starting your own business in the US seemed so distant and a lost dream.
I came back to Seattle, pulled our lost hopes and will together, and started working even harder on our case.
There was more burning of the midnight oil, more hard work, more battles (believe me it got harder than the first time). The next few months were stressful and exciting at the same time.
Everything I did, I had never done before. I didn’t know I was capable of taking on so much. Amidst all of this, we were blessed with a sweet angle. I sometimes felt guilty that I wasn’t able to give her so much time, but I sure hope that she won’t remember that.
I traveled to Toronto for my second interview with my 6-week-old baby, and this time I got the visa. It seemed like a battle that I had won with sheer persistence and so much support from my family.
I came back to Seattle and started working on my business. I opened the doors of the Live2Dance studio in October 2019.
It has only been an uphill battle since then, and things got even more challenging due to COVID-19, but we have continued to evolve, and innovate and today, I am so proud of what Live2Dance has become.
It has become a synonym for ‘happy place’ and ‘positive vibes’. We have a family of over 250 people, and we are growing every day.
4. Can you throw some light on opportunities one gets as a dancer?
Contrary to the belief that a dance career is short-lived, I’d like to believe that the world is filled with opportunities, and age is only a number. You just need to keep your eyes open and think with a broad perspective.
Dancers have a wealth of skills besides shimmy and pointe. The nature of their work and training translates into creativity, strong communication, problem-solving skills, and teamwork. They’re organized, detail-oriented, and highly disciplined.
Performance is an obvious opportunity that a dancer gets or creates their own. Theatre, stage performances, Youtube videos, tutorials, music videos are a few such opportunities.
Today, a lot of dancers with a decent following on social media also get the opportunity to collaborate with other brands and become influencers, which could potentially translate into revenue for them.
Dancers today are affluent with branding and marketing, creating content, and data analysis. They can also leverage their knowledge to work in social media management, arts management, administration, running operations, finance, or marketing. The opportunities are unlimited!
5. What piece of advice would you like to give to future and aspiring artists and entrepreneurs?
Starting something new, especially a business, can be overwhelming, intimidating, and downright scary. My advice for those future entrepreneurs would be, just start. Don’t wait for the right time, because that will never come. The right time is NOW. Just start. Don’t worry that you don’t have it all together.
You will encounter problems on your way and will learn to fight them. In the last 3 years, I have done so many things for the first time in my life, and I’ve grown with each one of them. Make mistakes but carry on.
One more very important advice that I’d like to give is, do not be scared to work hard. Hustle! Hustle! Hustle! There’s no shortcut to success.
Keep Dancing,
Founder and Creative Director, Live2Dance Seattle
Website: https://live2danceseattle.com
Interviewed By - Sandeep Virothu
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