My passion for dance was the obvious one grounding factor to making my dream a reality. I have been a dancer my entire life. Dance is my outlet, my “me” time, my solace and I wanted to share my love for that creative space with everyone. Through my passion and years of experience, I wanted to instill three major themes throughout ZIND:
- Cultural Identity
- Sense of Community
- Building Confidence
Confidence:
I wanted to build a space that was focused on building confidence. This is two-pronged. The first layer, involves helping students build confidence, and the second, on building groups of students that help build each other's confidence.
Some of the best parts of my ZIND journey is seeing the confidence in my students grow. I love to see my students practice, work hard, and perform with confidence on stage. I have seen kids come in through our doors, attached to their mom’s hip and in a matter of weeks - become leaders in class and loved by their classmates. I have witnessed students go from being so scared to even raise their hand in class to being front row center stage at a performance in front of a 500 person audience. I love seeing students support other students, ultimately building a sense of...
Community:
Building community and confidence go hand in hand. I wanted to bring groups together, create a form of mutual support, encouragement, and foster a sense of community. Dance friends tend to become lifelong friends. In fact, I am still in touch with my dance girls from my college team. Since you spend so much time together, you form a common interest, and see each other on a regular basis - a bond usually becomes inevitable. And that’s not just with students - but with parents. Our dance moms have made friends who partake in girls night out, ran marathons together, and even celebrate milestones together. I have seen so many friendships grow and blossom (both amongst students and parents!).
This safe space for expression is a way for us to maintain our:
Culture:
Being in the western part of the world, it can sometimes be quite difficult to find ways to not just maintain, but pass on our culture from generation to generation. We get caught up in work, school, life in general that our roots tend to be passed up or forgotten in the hustle and bustle of life.
Growing up, dance was how I always felt connected to my culture. Being surrounded by the music from India, I’d practice daily, perform at functions, and be immersed in my roots. I wanted to bring this opportunity to others.
Watching students reconnect or become aware of the beautiful festivals, traditions, food is an amazing experience.
