To dance, to be free and to fall in love with yourself - Jag shows us the way to dancing your way into happiness. This week, let us get inspired, moved and learn from this wonderful woman and her wonderful moves.
As part of my final year thesis for my degree in architecture, I was designing a dance academy. To conceptualise the design I had to learn about various dance forms, and that's how I ended up taking my first salsa lesson. I was a trained Indian classical dancer, it must have been this that immediately got me grooving pretty well to salsa music. In just one week, I was asked to become an instructor at that studio. I spent the next one year learning this dance form, not to teach but just out of curiosity. And thank god for that year, that’s the year I fell in love with Latin dance, which changed my life forever.
That year I decided to take part in the International Salsa Congress that was held in India. I was like “what the hell let’s do this”, it would be a great experience. So we trained like crazy for 3 months and participated in it. That was probably the best and worst experience I have ever had on stage. Worst - because my first performance on stage was a disaster, I felt embarrassed and had hit rock bottom, like Rachel from the TV show FRIENDS. Best - because I now had nothing to lose and I just wanted to prove everyone wrong. I got so damn determined to conquer this dance form, that when I got back from the competition, I quit my job without telling my parents and started training full time. We self-trained ourselves with a single-minded goal in mind- we had to crack this dance form. The next year we participated and won the “International Salsa Semi-Pro Couple Award”. I couldn't believe it, all the hours of hard work had paid off, I felt I had found my true calling.
There has been no looking back, I dived in to the deep end of the pool of dance. From Salsa to Zumba, Bachata, Kizomba, Tarraxo I was completely mesmerized by the world of dance, I also started my own school “Dance Jockey”. I always add my own style to any dance that I learn or teach, I have this undying need to take a dance form and sprinkle a dash of “Jags” to it.
My love for setting trends and taking up challenges led me on a perennial cycle with dance - LEARN IT, MASTER IT, TEACH IT... REPEAT!” - Jags
