Month: July 2016

Our Story – How, when…. Grace And Grooves Started. And Why us ?

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Our Story – How, when…. Grace And Grooves Started. And Why us ?

Any kind of Indian Dance, be it Bharatnatyam, Folk Dances of India or Bollywood was NEVER mainstream career in India and neither in Ms. Hetal Joshi’s family.  Right after 1999 when Hetal Joshi Nagaraj(Founding member) stepped in freelance private group choreography for Folk Dances of India (competitions-curriculam technique focused), there was no looking back indeed.

But these competitions demand creativity, dramatic appearances & intricate choreography thereby following the rules of your chosen dance form. intricate choreography includes techniques. And this means that it involves hours of training even before the actual choreography work starts. You can only imagine the work required for competitions if you were to do it as a mainstream career with your own mainstream studies. So, it was once or max twice a year exclusive work for competitions only.

So, was this the reason that company was established? Nope.

Way of life made a way of life when her 3.5-year old-daughter started dancing (not moving) to Krishna Bhajans at Hare Krishna Temple of Dallas, Texas (ISKON of Dallas, Texas-USA). The crowd turned heads when she “danced” and people asked if she took lessons and when she started dancing. Her daughter happened to pick these folk dance steps while Ms. Joshi was teaching a competition group. She then started teaching her daughter just as any (trained teacher or)mother would do with proper training. But, she felt that her daughter needed more structured program of folk dances, if there was anybody doing it as mainstream. Because then it would make perfect sense to be able to use it towards accomplishments, achievements and several other performing arts avenues.

After trying a dance school/academy (for 2 years w/group & private in Plano & Irving) that claimed to teach authentic, creative or curriculum based Folk Dances of India, Ms. Joshi just couldn’t find ANY other in entire Dallas Fort-worth areas. You-Tube videos as Guru, copied resumes of other trained dancers & even copied choreography (Bollywood mostly)-of unpublished works of other artists seemed like a practice to this so called folk-proclaimed gifted artist.

All of this @ the cost of parents and students’ who are ignorant to Folk Dances of India and would consider Bollywood or even community folk as actual folk dances! What ? The artist would then get their way out of all the blames by just doing govt. services-shocking and above all – shameful! 

Indeed an exhilarating & fraud experience from a senior artist it was! Not as expected when we joined folk program! A simple fact—you can’t call yourself a doctor just b’coz you know dosage & medicine names or you saw a surgery on you-tube and thus open a clinic @ home! Can you? We wished ;).  For an untrained eye will identify community dances as pure or modern folk, the so-called—“Hey, I know Folk Dance-pride” just crashes before the trained eyes that look for basic folk-requirements.

These days talk about community folk just about anything is included in it.

More than 99% of videos on You-tube are entertainment videos in the name of folk & don’t reflect the right elements of folk! techniques are missingContent 6 History

So, with training, in-depth knowledge, and competition experiences in competition that we already had (Ms. Hetal Joshi), we opened our doors to teaching authentic, certified folk dances of India to outside students and public altogether. 

Grace and Grooves, name itself was a recommendation from the audience where prominent dance teachers participated and only Ms. Joshi’s advance dancers did not have name when asked. Grace and Grooves it was then in 2012 when the company was finally registered in Dallas-Fortworth (DFW) as LLC with the State of Texas, USA. Since then, Grace and Grooves is focused on providing structured programs for Folk Dances of India, Bharatnatyam and Bollywood. Certified programs are available if you want to make it a part of your life just as it is ours for generations!

These programs receive continuous mentorship from lead dancers, junior & senior artists in India who do it as mainstream career either as gifted dancers (Bollywood) or as trained dancers (All genres). A consistent passion to compete in Pure and Modern Folk Dances of India to NOW a full-time certified business offering Bharatnatyam, Bollywood and Folk Dances of India. This is something like “the forgotten-once upon a time vision” in performing arts that actually came true! 

In 2016, Grace and Grooves was accredited by BBB(Better Business Bureau) so that you learn from the right people, just the way it is, in the right way & yet be just as creative enough, wherever required! After all, we want to introduce our kids-India’s beautiful culture, so that they don’t forget their roots and most importantly love to embrace it. The Right Folk Dances of India–Not the You-Tube videos!

So Why Grace & Grooves ?

All of above….PLUS How you want your child’s talent to be judged. Based on govt. service that a dance teacher does, their partnered businesses, and copied unpublished works of other artists ?

OR 

You want your child’s dance talent to be judged based on their own ability/talent because of training & by right people ?

Make your $ worth of where you spend! Common sense, culture knowledge is taught FREE with all our trainings just like the way we learned from our institutes and yet look beyond possibilities, wherever/whenever required!

Tell us what is more important, spending money on useless dances(without techniques or as a matter of fact anything worth) that don’t lead to anywhere on any path that is appropriate for decent family

OR

useful dance activities that lead to somewhere if you would wish to switch for fun!

Choice is YOURS!

God’s grace, this definitely answers as to why your child should enroll with Grace And Grooves.

Dec 7, 2023 –

The need to register the brand with a name was also a beautiful accident! It was around the time when a commercial gig of hetal nagaraj’s own activities got a bigger media face and we needed a company name to represent our group and that is how abruptly the name was announced. It wasn’t in the list of names being planned either but suddenly when the question was asked in media, grace and grooves got its name literally out of nowhere.

Probably it had something to do with ms. hetal’s telugu/tamil/malayali church gigs where she was named “grace” often and somehow that triggered the creation of the name when suddenly asked. The name “Grace” was titled to hetalnagaraj because of her beautiful way to treat people. www.hetaln.com

And it is 2023 – here’s the list of our dance productions + activities that we do in this group.

It is 2023, Graduates are listed as well.

By 2023, Programs accepted in universities of 5 countries. International. Exposure in 25 countries.

By 2023 – Number of Graduates – more than 150 in DFW Texas.

By 2023 –Hetal Nagaraj herself taught more than 3500 students.

By 2023 – Social Media Stats without a single reel.

By 2023 –Hetal Joshi M / Hetal Nagaraj has become a magnet for investors, capitalist, producers, directors, actors, celebrities from all over the world exclusively because of all the transparency, growth, traceability and all the beautiful results.

****Hetal is always there in all classes either supervising her grads or texas all star program interns.

****+ Hetal teaches her own independent batches(under her own name as well) for which there are 4 productions, each with min 35 to 70 kids per production of her own on an average. Company works for Hetal. hetal does not work for company. Company choreographers participate if they worked in that season since most are seasonal or part time.

****+ ALL 30 programs that you see are exclusively to Hetal Joshi / Hetal Nagaraj, other than performing routine classes and so ms. hetal has admin or planner for herself that usually takes care of other appointments as well.

**** Hetal’s own networth(without spouse) shooted to 22.5 million$ in 2023 because of all the extra ordinary growth, transparency, traceability, multi-field specialities with 100% straight background record | 12.5 million$ networth in performing arts itself on paper direct calculation.

  • Company’s networth 30million$ on paper with Hetal and just the in-house Elites in it.
  • Company’s networth without any of these 1 million$. This company’s value are it’s people and Hetal’s mastery in using the specialities.

Do you know how much Hetal’s Elites are worth ?

Just http://www.thesettys.com-the setty siblings are worth 12million$ each. Value of real knowledge despite everything.

Still want to argue, chase cents, do labor work and wonder if anything that we are doing works or not ? See, it just worked (without anybody).

That is why Hetal’s name is everywhere.

Ever seen any thing like this ? anywhere ? anybody ? Dare to compare Hetal Joshi M, Hetal Nagaraj.

Date update – Dec 7, 2023 with links.

Copyright Reach Media for Grace And Grooves | Grace Creations | 2012-2023. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

1999…. Entering Freelance Private Group Choreography. How we got into it…

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1999 marked the year when our founding member Ms. Hetal Nagaraj first stepped into professional competition choreography as freelancer. It was the very first time when she taught students similar to her age, or they did not belong to her affiliated groups/school or college or let’s just say, were complete strangers. For a 20 year old, it was tough call when she was not a performer but a choreographer (Sigh). Through a friend’s friend, this all got started and today we are thankful to both of them.

Biggest challenge was that these students were avid dancers (who could move the way you want them to) but they had no idea of what they were doing. This is in-spite of being natives or participating in various community or school events as they claimed to. But, ready to work hard & first whole week just passed by getting their moves FIXED to folk requirements, which we did daily for 4 hours totaling to up-to 28 hours of training!

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After spending all that sponsored funds for the costumes and travel, you cannot afford to do mistakes. The whole week, with pure folk training & listening to audio/video of 30+ folk artist, finally we ended up in a song that was approved by competition board to use and was best fitting our decided folk & theme!

Then the real drill work of choreography had begun!

Folk Dance Competitions in India were/are technique focused (The ones we participated in) considering the important and major elements of folk dances to promote the authenticity and importance of Folk Dances. Other folk dances participated as well due to diverse cultural demographics in Gujarat. Judges either had dual degrees in performing arts, followed by PHDs or double masters in their areas. Ms. Joshi (we were) was worried as it was her very first freelance private group choreography with just some amateur free-move dancers who took training for short period of time! Getting them to NOT do mistake was biggest challenge.

If that was not enough, innovation & creativity was an essential element and to further make it look dramatic, we added the props that required balance.

Pressures…pressures & crazy pressures of around 16 dancers (14+2 setting) and it was all worth taking the pain! Cash prize of 1 Lakh Rupees & gift certificates to various malls & resorts. We did bag 20K INR (from award money as our % other than choreography fees), free tickets to cultural concerts, and gift cards to restaurants and hotels. It was a big amount back then in 1999 for a 20 year old to earn that money for just 3.5 months of work!

The satisfaction, Ms. Joshi (we) got was PRICELESS. Ms. Joshi also received additional perks from group as a thank you note for arranging costumes, jewelry & Props in last moment when board did not approve costumes and jewelry (due to folk costume guidelines) that group had initially decided. This was a kick-starter for us…Our best of all until now!

Copyright Reach Media for Grace And Grooves | Grace Creations | 2012-2019. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Bollywood Fever…. since 2015!

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Bollywood Dances…. first impressions: Fun, Jazzy, Funky, Crazy, hip hop, Peppy and yes by all means entertainment, entertainment and entertainment. What else can you learn from movie dance routines? Movie, Masti(fun) and Magic(Celebrations) of Indian Cinema is addictive, yes it got us too.

Grace And Grooves is in love with Bollywood Program that we created with curriculam!. HELP! So what do we learn in entertainment dances (Bollywood)?

Let’s try & do some math — Circus skills (optional), fashionable clothing looks good but not required, lot of expressions and just expressions ONLY because limelight of widescreen requires that you just can’t have a blank face in Bollywood—aka face-value—well most of times. While some songs do have a total blank “watssup” face 😉 totally goes by script and not even by dance steps or words—Aha! UNLIKE FOLK OR BHARATNATYAM!

No Rules to follow in Bollywood (Yahoooo!) & it has rating based on clothing, language, or script used & other factors. Good thing is when you learn Bollywood Dances, there is no rating for clothes or language (Ahem!) but with Grace And Grooves, there is an assurance to learn from a Certified Business with a successful curriculam! Now that’s fun to learn—isn’t it? Our program will help you learn the following:

  • Traditional (decent) movie songs that you/your child can perform at your own community events, marriages, and Mehdi nights, meet-up get together, temples, churches and such other cultural events. Bollywood folk dances (Beware don’t mix w/Pure folk dances of India or even Community/Creative Folks-no where close.).
    • Eg – Some of our graceful choreography includes songs such as Rang De by Tabu(Tabassum Fatima Hashmi), MAYE NI MAYE by Madhuri Dixit(Madhuri Dixit Nene of movie Hum Aapke Hain Kaun), or Nagada Sang of Ram Leela by Deepika Padukone or her famous Pinga or Chittiyaan Kalaiyaan of Jacqueline Fernandez and several other amateur artists or just competitions or community performances.
  • Some Bollywood modern stuff & hip-hop like works to do in social family parties or friends parties.
    • Eg – We have done: Songs of our all time favorite Shahrukh Khan in Chammak Chalo(Ra One), or Kajol’s Mere “Khwabon Maen” of Dilwale Dulahniya Le Jayenge(DDLJ as we know it), or our heart throb Hritik Roshan in Ae Mere Dil Tu Gayeja of Kaho na Pyar Hai, & several other amateur artists or just for competitions or performances.BollywoodProgramContent4

Our Competitive and Recreational Program will do the job of making you dance with all that is required. How gracefully & upto what level is something that you have to decide. It goes by level from Beginners to Elite Program.

We DO IT ALL.  Videos & Pictures are getting ready…will be posted soon!

Let’s not forget the song-hits by the Kapoors, Bachchans, Karan Johars, Chopras and Bhansalis movies and all the fun-pop album songs by amateur artists. Depending on program you have joined, sometimes our choreography works will match directly to that of song, and our other program where our creativity is limitless often called as Fusion. We offer Fusion programs for Bharatnatyam, Bollywood & Folk too.

Training will take you to the heights of creativity without bluffing around of what you just did!

Pictures posted above are either past or present students of Grace and Grooves & their pictures are shared based on their exclusive photo sharing rights and approved by parents when shared/transferred to Grace And Grooves for the purpose of Grace and Grooves ONLY.
Post Updated : Dec 2, 2022 with changes in company names 🙂

Copyright Reach Media for Grace And Grooves | Grace Creations | 2012-2022. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Elite : Expensive Or Quality ?

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IMG_2746

2014 Winners. Copyright Images Exclusive to Grace And Grooves | Grace Creations, 25$ Costume on the left of this picture & 100$ Costume(handmade-on the right).          Choreographer : Hetal Joshi Nagaraj. Picture Courtesy : The Grace Effects.

ELITE: Expensive or Quality?

 What makes a DANCE company enjoy “An Elite” status?

Looking at pictures of Grace And Grooves, one might assume the OMG factor is of an expensive costume or is it, that rich families being part of event that company gets impression with the word – Elite?

W…R…O… N…G…! It wasn’t that. Don’t get deceived by the pictures or words!

In 2014, students of Grace And Grooves (Ages 7 & 9years old) won awards against pure Indian Classical Dance by some of the finest teachers in Dallas-Fortworth areas (Indian Dance Competition). The awards were won with pure folk dances of India and participating dance teams were from all over Texas. It wasn’t the first win that Grace And Grooves got it with pure folk in the same competition. 2013 competition wins were still fresh to all who participated again in 2014. They admired pure folk dances of india done by Grace And Grooves amongst the others–one more time because it was something that reminded them of their home. Just the way it is supposed to be! Choreographers addressed the performers of Grace And Grooves as an Elite with respect to choreography. That day, it was an honor for Ms. Joshi when those choreographers gave pat on her back for her 9 year old (with $100-custom handmade costume) stealing the award with a simple pure folk dance of India-Rajasthan-Ghoomar(or Ghummar/Ghumar) & a Lavani (or Laavani)- folk dance of India-Maharashtra by her 7 year old (with a $25 costume) against pure Bharatnatyam & Kuchipudi & other folk dances of india in non-classical dance category. Can’t get that wrong with all that years of knowledge/sweat & yes, constant mentoring. There it was, the company changed their tag line from a Premier Award Winning Folk Dance Company to an Elite Award Winning Folk Dance Company. In 2015, company started offering Bollywood Dance and Fusion Dance in name of Grace Creations for non-classical category of dances and to welcome Indian Movie Dances loved and admired for its peppy beats.

For most Bollywood/Tollywood Dances, Grace Creations costumes range is anywhere from a simple Jeans/legging with a t-shirt of $5-$10 and goes up-to $100 while the Folk Dances of India has costumes with price tag that starts from $25 to $120. Bharatnatyam costumes starts from $30 with shipping & goes up-to $110.

It all depends on how far you want to go with your pocket when it comes to dance. We welcome students to get their own costumes as well.

After all, dance is all about teaching your child look & feel beautiful which often goes with other performing arts factors & BIG yes–plus the COSTUME; if it comes with an affordable price tag.

And that’s how it is supposed to be – Simply Elite or Call it graceful. It’s the same thing. To be straight, no one wants to look beautiful with a hole in pocket or buy a $60 costume that makes your precious child look like a junk!

Pictures posted above are either past or present students of Grace and Grooves & their pictures are shared based on their exclusive photo sharing rights and approved by parents when shared/transferred to Grace And Grooves for the purpose of Grace and Grooves ONLY.  

Copyright Reach Media for Grace And Grooves | Grace Creations | 2012-2017. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.