“My first meeting with Nicky was complete serendipity. I was selling Kenyan jewellery at a Christmas fair at a Surrey school and Nicky was visiting a friend whose child went there. When Nicky learnt that I was a professional dancer, she invited me to work with Create (following a rigorous assessment process!). In the years that followed I led dance More →
Music can make or break a dance-fitness class. So, at Just Jhoom! we take a lot of time and care over the songs we use. During the Instructor Training programme we spend quite a lot of time listening to music, analysing the structure and choreographing moves to suitable songs. Although we cannot give Just Jhoomers the music (for legal and More →
Picture the setting. A studio, mirrors on one wall, a sound system playing the track Om Shanti Om whilst ten females concentrate on their dance moves, keeping to the words of the song. Was your first thought: “a dance studio, ten dancers, barefoot, performing a classical Indian piece of invocation”? Or was it: “a fitness studio, ten women – all More →
In 1989 the film Chandni was released. It had nine songs some of which were filmed in Switzerland and the choreography was by Saroj Khan. The film starts with Rohit, (Rishi Kapoor), meeting Chandni, (Sridevi), at a wedding. Rohit is particularly struck by Chandni’s charm in the song Mere Hathon Mein which she performs in front of an all-female audience More →
PechaKucha comes from Japan. It means to “chatter”. You have 20 images and 20 secs to talk about each image. That’s it. Say what you need to say in exactly 6mins and 40 secs. I’ve just come back from my first PechaKucha night where the topic I presented was “Love to Dance“. Now, for someone who loves to talk, 20 More →
SamBuru Designs Market Stall As I approach a rather big birthday, I’ve been thinking a lot about how my career has dipped and turned all over the place. When I came to England in 1996 to do my MSc in Tourism I had no idea that this would become my home. Whilst studying I did some waitressing for a More →