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Why Compete!!! Where does it get you ?

Asidegraceandgrooves group by hetal joshi 2 Comments

We are asked this lot of times, sometimes when people call……..Why Compete!!! What does it get you ? Do you compete because you are not confident…LOL NO…!

Here is why we have culture to compete, perform and do educational activities.

You heard that right, culture to compete is encouraged but not necessary. Our job is to inform you, tell you pros and cons. You do it or you do not it, there is no compromise in dance 🙂 You will still learn the same exact thing even if you do not compete and in same number of classes!

Competitions that we go to are : Healthy, Fun, technique focused/education field/ and lot of them come with really good $$, some are strictly amateur level while some are really good/tough/hard/strict/competitive on techniques and other rubrics. Read about rubrics!

Benefits of competing or even giving the best performance, if you were to give !

  1. You compete because it is not always for the win….! Some competitions will teach lot of other things that even education mainstream will not give you that exposure. It is about being there, feeling it, going through it that will give you the experience.
  2. It teaches healthy sportsmanship…You will still be friends, classmates whether or not you got the wins or lose!
  3. You compete so that you know what comes out of you, under that pressures!
  4. You compete so that when you lose, it does not bother you. It becomes fun!
  5. You learn to lose and still do it all over again & learn to never give up.
  6. You win it and still do it all over again; as if it never happened.
  7. You do competitions to understand life is not about competing. It is about giving your math exam after losing 5 different competitions and still get “A” without a cry. Oh, you bet, elites have gone through that a lot of times. Just like that you do not win. Times they have not won…and still had their exams later next week…Read About them here.
  8. You do competitions so that it gives you a refined audience who knows what you are doing and they have every right to comment or critic on your performance that you will not get in culture or festival audiences or even in those reality show competitions.
  9. You compete as if you are giving your post exam that is optional and fun.
  10. You compete so that when you are there, you do not lose it, no matter what happens on that day. It is the process that teaches you.
  11. You compete so that you learn to trust your trainings..from laughing, smiling, crying, moods or whatever that may come….even if you had worst day of your life.
  12. You compete so that when you get feedback (some competitions come with educational feedback), you do the fixes and do it all over again. It is the pressure under which things will happen that may surprise everybody!
  13. You compete so that the girl or boy you just met took your 2nd place or 1st place or 3rd place and that life is all about how best you did and for what. You get to judge yourself, understand + and – of it. And what could have got you that 1st place, if you would have prob listened to your teacher. Mind you, sometimes too much/over practice too causes failures!
  14. You compete so that you learn to balance everything. It is like a dart board, you hit or miss, you will play it again until the board or the dart is available!
  15. You compete to lead and take charge of your groups’ decision for changes that may happen or support as team member when required. It is not always about you.
  16. You learn to let go your ego and learn to respect others and you learn to never laugh at others. You know what it takes to be there. It is the process.
  17. You learn to get tired, exhausted under pressure and still do a flawless job just as trained without letting audience know of how bad your day was.
  18. Some competitions comes with perks/well most that we do…some $ that students earn for themselves and pay off their own fees and we do too, some give other benefits. It just depends on type of competitions.

Competing in competitions fosters not only healthy environment for sportsmanship between students, teachers, parents, and their own friends but also lot of times depending on rubrics or type of competitions, you will amaze yourself. We have had sweet surprises when our elites forgot their dance moves and made up something(surprise-their own genre steps!) and still got 1st place. Our teachers wondered that time as to where did this step come from and yet the genre suffices and gets them 1st place. Nobody knew till date if it was mistake! While there were days when we had “oppps” moments too then back to point 10. Finish the dance even if you lost that split of the second….get back to it, right away!

Do you know, not all our students compete. While not all our students perform either and yet they all learn the same exact dance/technique and routine. We did it from over a decade just in DFW of North Texas ….and will continue to do so :). 

This is the magic of training…And that is why whether or not you compete, there is no difference in what we teach you or these learning skills! With us, under Hetal Nagaraj, you get a guarantee of technique focused & creativity with all that straight background that we speak of…..Your child or yourself will learn same exact steps in same number of classes, no matter what the level is. See for yourself on our Youtube. The videos are clipped from master recording files of entire recording of non-stop classes.

Competing in educational competitions exposes you to educational field and not to entertainment field. Both are different and so are the dances. The entire choreography changes & techniques are far off. You will know when you will do it separately. We have them both under us for seperate category of dance requirements and they all are seperate. They are like two parallel lines that will NEVER meet or agree to each other. And for sure, that is something not to be compared or discussed. You compare when they have something in common!

Only Best Part about all the educational field dancers is that they fit very well and succeed in entertainment world of their genres because of strong knowledge, techniques/originality in them and the process of the trainings that they go through comes with its pros that no education or experience will teach. While entertainment dancers find extremely difficult to fit in educational field and related state of affairs. It becomes difficult for them to understand concepts, techniques and choreography too. Either way, this is just our experience whenever we had choreographers from entertainment field or direct industry who do not know this process of education. While who are we to argue when it comes to parallel lines. Those who have never done it will not know it!

Call NOW…Learn your life skills from sportsmanship to leadership skills with us and let dance allow you to beat the crap out of everything. 972 979 2559 is the right number. Our owner Hetal Nagaraj ( www.hetaln.com ) has a certifications in those too other than her trainings of 35 years background in Indian and Non-Indian Performing Arts. For those who do not know, she was trained exclusively under her teachers’ complete trainings, internships, guidance, mentorship, amongst the most mature and strongest leaderships and was launched by one in 1999.

Do you know ? In order to at-least get 1 win for 1 genre, you have to submit at-least 1 student or group or for audition for at-least 1 dance in 1 category/genre ? Do the math, how many of our students must have submitted per competition & per genre to create a record of 10+ years of history in all genres with technique based non-voting educational competitions 🙂 .

This just tells how much we love what we do, how we succeed in all we do…and why! try it, you will achieve it too. #trainingsrequired

Exclusive Copyrights by Reach Media for Hetal Joshi Nagaraj| Grace & Grooves | Grace Creations | Grace And Grooves | Nruthyakala Dance Academy | Mirchi Dance Academy | Kalasri Classical Dance Academy : 2012-2020.  

This material cannot not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. 

 

Secret To Winning Indian Dance Competitions For Dummies!!!

Linkgraceandgrooves group by hetal joshi 2 Comments

Winning 1st 3 prizes for solo(s)/group(s) in Indian Dance Competitions for over a decade in our genre of specialization for non-voting Indian Dance Competitions sounds like a big thing. It actually isn’t if you follow curriculum and keep it fun. For us, it has been a norm for Bharatanatyam, Indian Folk Dances & Bollywood/Some Tollywood and from 2013-Fusion!

HOW ? We love to share how we have been winning from over a decade in all the “stage dance competitions” and how our elites have come this far with such good paid commitments.

So, here’s our HOW TO Win Indian Dance Competitions for Dummies…!

Our Fool Proof guidelines and tips for those interested.

One of main attributes in stage competitions/for all genres are : Techniques. Techniques also means right amount of expressions required at certain techniques or mood used in the dance, coordination if group, comfort level of dancers with respect to dance, stage presence and personality, choreography, costumes, makeup and drama aspect. To do it right, you have to feel it and go through it which at Grace And Grooves is a norm! Because our owner herself comes from that background of competitions from over 2 decades! Read About Ms. Hetal Nagaraj.

To begin with, what are the types of dances ? 

Look !! Type of Competitions We Do !!!

Be it Bharatanatyam, Indian folk dances or Bollywood/Movie inspired dances; usually these dances are non-commercial dances. For bollywood or tollywood dance industry genre, there is level of dance and name of dance as well. As we all know that bollywood dances emerge from various forms or styles or certain drama attributes and thus will always have name.

However, there are certain category of dances within bollywood that do not have name because they do no follow a form or style and are purely for entertainment or let’s just say – NO RULES thus, these dances makes them commercial dances and usually gets disqualified in first round itself if you do it in-spite of rules given. Open category of competitions usually accepts these for example – most reality show competitions are based on this! That dance industry/world is entirely different than education studio. Education world competitions are to encourage the dancer to follow the rules, get finer in it and excel with feedbacks and let’s just say prepare them for higher grounds of possibilities within the form or with fusions later, if trained. Then, break the rules-it is completely dancers wish and instructor’s wish! None-the-less, our students have won these open category dance competitions with their actual dance forms itself or with fusion depending on what is allowed. Usually it will depend on judges, number of rounds in competitions and students training level in that genre. Everything goes in there…

For Bharatanatyam/Classical Dances & indian folk dances, the category is always non-commercial and standard as it is dance form. Even for entertainment, creativity is out of this world if used within the form. Most classical dances are actual dance formats/margams itself and then there are dance dramas. Not to confuse with dance musicals!

There is this entire category of exclusive Indian Folk Dances that is entirely different than the dances that are into Community stage dances/cultural dances/regional dances/bollywood inspired folk dances/ethnic dances/creative folk dances. Why ? Because of rubrics of judging and rules that go with it is entirely different for both these categories. You cannot possibly compare Folk Dances rubrics to Bollywood or with Bharatanatyam. With Bollywood having different types of techniques and some folk dances do not even have expressions as their main factor. Likewise, Bharatanatyam nritta if done will lack several attributes of nritya or natyam itself. So rubrics are often kept in % by the genre or type of entries.

Depending on competitions, they categorize fusion dances or they put them in open category. Concept of fusion dances is very simple! Some go by dance done on other music to be considered as fusion because their argument is that if dance is not danced on its actual/real music then it is not that dance. That is true but if u do not consider music at all and see the dance without music; what will you name it? That raises lot of fundamental questions. So these occurrences have been very rare in over 10 years of history that we have participated. We had 2 such competitions that we came across in entire history of 10+ years where they had that kind of rule! We got 1st place in both anyway. The only argument to this was you cannot name that dance as fusion unless 2 or more dance form or styles are used. Rest are very clear about categories & thus you’ll know it well.

Then comes the judges. First experience is always a question for you because these competitions do not tell you who the judges are and some do not specify the rubrics either but when you test waters, you’ll know! We had tested some waters — we decided not to waste time there as they were bias to one team based on their friendly relations! Then be it that way, you should call only them!

Some competitions are very transparent to names of judges and their experiences and that is fun! Last but not the least, whether or not there it is any voting. If voting then how many % is counted towards total judging points. What age group we are competing in one category/genre is also important factor for stage like dances!!

Then comes, prize money if there is one or something of that sort. Then it is motivating for students who are doing competitions regularly or something of that equivalent value. Nobody wants a 10$ trophy after spending money on hours of practices, competition fees, costumes and that just adds to a collection without a meaning!

For us at Grace And Grooves, it has been other way round. Our students have earned more, earned bigger opportunties than what they put money in! It is just boring for our students who have competed from over 10 years now to go for $10 trophies without the meaning to it. They rather spend money 50 to 60$ and do shows with us where they know they are going to get recognition, feathers to wear that they can own as skill-set, showcase as their own, perks, discounts and many more fun things to take home. A beautiful memory to take home. Budget is very important factor too!

Alas, comes the winning part after all that! Most difficult & unpredictable of all!

Just like that you do not get the wins in 1st 3 places & $$$ prizes. Here are some standard points that we have come across for rubrics in judgement & we would absolutely love to share with you:

1. Expressions 40% depending on genre. Some genres strongly requires that this element isn’t the part of dance because of restrictions on costumes, mask, type of song/pure technique competitions, or certain type of dramas. so % is then distributed.

2. Techniques 50% & % is distributed

3. Comfort level of dance & body movements-rest % divided, solo or group and as per difficulty level.

4. Coordination to music-rest % divided, if solo or group.

6. Costumes-rest % divided

7. Makeup / Dramatic effects of dance : % is divided by genre.

7. Props & usages

8. Choreography and Innovation in dance form without losing genre category—-some competitions have this highest! some have these 2 seperate.

10. Culture aspect depending on dance (if required depending on competitions since we have been to some of most difficult & strict competitions too!!!)

Sounds easy ? See you there..!!!!

Congrats to all our elites Nirja Setty, Samarth Setty, Setty Siblings, Ashna Pethe, Hetal Nagaraj, and lot of our graduates who have won them through a decade as they grew with us by balancing not only personal life but studies too.

Check out their real dances & results as they have been doing it beautifully and gracefully like cute little swans! Click Here.

Read about these budding stars : Here.

See their dance trainings at : https://www.graceandgrooves.com/our-graduates

Our Performing Teams too have won several such auditions/competitions or are called for special paid appearances : https://www.graceandgrooves.com/our-performing-team

Do not forget to sign up or subscribe our Youtube Channel Playlists.  You will find lot of videos of our competition students, recreational dances, party dances, margam dances for classical dances, audition videos, our program videos, media releases & videos of different age groups starting from 3.5 to 5 years onwards to Adults 50+, and many more!!! Do not miss the Teenagers tribute of fun dances they do.

Hetal’s My Classroom break hour between practices.
Samarth Setty

Student of the year until 2019 December
Hetal Nagaraj
Hetal’s ConcertPaper, Folk Dance Drama
Nirja Setty
Ashna Pethe
Samarth Setty

Dates these page were updated : May 1, 2020. 930am.

Exclusive Copyrights by Reachh Mediaa for Hetal Joshi Nagaraj| Grace & Grooves | Grace Creations | Grace And Grooves | Nruthyakala Dance Academy | Mirchi Dance Academy | Kalasri Classical Dance Academy : 2012-2020.  

This material can not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. 

Guest Artists @Grace And Grooves Dance Productions | Annual Recitals | Programs

Asidegraceandgrooves group by hetal joshi 2 Comments

Celebrating all our guest artists who have performed with us in past in our journey of dance productions. These guest artist are invited to come and perform with their own work. The talent that they perform are not taught by us. These are not our students either. They have their own dance/talent academy at some place/city or have their own group that they perform. We pick their performance piece dance based on our dance production.

These Guest Artist are local or new artists who have just stepped in the world of Indian Performing Arts or have just started performing.

It is our absolute honor to introduce them to our audiences and as well work with them.

guestartist20162016 : Dance of Gods : Adi-Shakti. 
Event : A fundraiser for CRY America showcasing Bharatanatyam, 
Bollywood, Indian Folk Dances. 
Fusion Dances by Elites in respective categories.
Guest Artist : 
Dancer : Meghna Murali, A Bharatanatyam dance presentation on Devi.
Singer : Mala Pydimari, Carnatic Singer.

IMG_1988

2017 : Jalso : Celebration of Life with Dance,
Event : Nritya Ki Masti, Navarasa in Bharatanatyam, 
Bollywood And Indian Folk Dances. 
A seperate presentation of Fusion Dances was also showed by our own 
students, elites-trained in 3 different dance forms/styles.
Guest Artist : 
Dancer : Easter Bunny.
Guestartist20182018 : ABCD - American Born Cultured Desi
Event : Participating fundraiser for a private foundation-Cqunce Inc.
Dances in Bharatanatyam, Bollywood & Indian Folk Dances 
featuring Festivals of India or celebrated by Indians outside India.
A special 11 minute tribute to Shahrukh Khan - King of Bollywood.
Exclusive Fusion Dances were showcased by our elites who are trained
in 2-3 different dance forms.
Guest Artists : 
Dances : 
Mishu Shashtri with her team for Bollywood Garba featuring Navratri.
Ritu Kharbanda with her team of Rang Barse duet featuring Holi.
Instruments :
Arjun Iyer (Middle Schooler, LISD School Band)-Clarinet & Keyboard.
Kedar Golvekar : Introducing Music for SRK Tribute on Guitar.

rinkudas

2019 : Anantha-1 Dance Production. Special Presentations by Rinku Das for Kathak and Manipuri.

rinkumani22019 : Anantha-1 Dance Production.
Event : An Exclusive Dance Production featuring a full 
Bharatanatyam Margam,Copyright Dances in Bharatanatyam, 
Folk Dances of India featuring North, East, West & South India.
Special presentation by Elites for Fusion dances such as Swala Jathi,
Rabindra Nruthya. Fully trained in their own dances.
Guest Artist :
Dances : 
Rinku Das for Kathak Classical Dances
Rinku Das for Manipuri Classical Dances.
Rinku Das was also introducing choreographer for our company that year.
Singing :
Our own elite student-Ashna Pethe representing LISD choir.

Exclusive Copyrights by Reach Media for Hetal Joshi | Grace & Grooves | Grace Creations | Grace And Grooves 2012-2019.  This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. 

http://www.graceandgrooves.com        972 979 2559         info@graceandgrooves.com