About Me
Founder & Creative Director: Nina Kay
I am so glad you're here! I started training in Bharatanatyam (Indian Classical Dance) at the age of 6 in Maryland. In high school, I started choreographing cinematic and folk dances and continued to teach and choreograph for local Indian community programs. I graduated from KNS in my senior year of high school. I would have loved to further my training to an Arangetram level, but put it on hold to attend St. John's University Queens, NY to pursue a Doctorate in Pharmacy.
When I went to college, one of the first things my dad told me was to “not even think about dance”. So, of course, being an 18 year old with my first real taste of freedom, I quickly looked up and auditioned for the all female south Asian dance team (SJU Raaz) the very first week of college.
After returning back from college, the dancing still didn’t stop. I contacted my Guru and started to train for my arangetram. I’m sure my parents thought “omg – This girl is STILL trying to dance?!”. But, yes, I was. I finally completed my arangetram in October of 2013. About eight months later, I opened up ZIND Performing Academy (formerly known as NinaKshi, LLC) on June 21, 2014 (a day before my 26th birthday!
After almost a decade of countless performances, classes, competitions and recitals, the ZIND dance community has grown in the DC, MD & VA area offering weekly classes for kids - adults, monthly workshops and now wedding dance tutorials!
As the studio grew, so did the requests for wedding choreography. I started coordinating and choreographing for friends, family and people all over the country. And these excited couples wanted the same thing. Simple, easy dances by their friends and family on the big day. The problem was they didn't have the time to choreograph and teach everyone all over the country with their busy schedules and planning a whole indian wedding (you know how that goes!). So I started creating these tutorials for the bride/groom to share with their family, bridesmaids and groomsmen. I knew time and dance experience was probably limited so I kept these routines so simple that your 5 year old cousin can do alongside your 50 year old uncle. I wanted to apply my dance background and skills to take the stress off your plate for the biggest day.
I get it, dances for the wedding are one of those things that you need to have but ends up near the bottom of the to do list when planning an indian wedding. You won't ever stress about the choreography, picking songs, teaching or even making the mix with ZIND's bollywood wedding dance tutorials. This is my area of expertise so you can sit back, relax and enjoy one of the most important days of your life!
I still work as a Pharmacist, but dance has always and will always be my gift, my outlet, my blessing and my calling. I knew from an adolescent age that I wanted to open up a dance studio to create dance routines, teach dance lovers and perform the art of Indian Dance. When you know, you know.
