Deepthi Chandrasekaran

Secret To Winning Indian Dance Competitions For Dummies!!!

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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

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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

Some of Our Bollywood List of Songs (Indian Cinema/Movie Dances).

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2013 and onwards, Grace And Grooves started teaching Bollywood/Tollywood-Indian Movie Dance Lessons with structured programs. Songs such as Bahubali, Jai Ganesh, Krishna Leela, Heer, Tamma Tamma(Remix) and many more were acknowledged and requested by clients and organizers to perform in community/cultural events and auditions/competitions over and over again. Some of the listed songs that we performed were non-movie songs remixes such as Come and Get it by Selena Gomez, Cheap-Thrills combined with indian songs etc. T’was fun teaching them.

Personal achievements of choreographers with their other dance activities ARE NOT listed. You can check those out in our other blog post! Multiple Entry of same song means it was performed multiple times but with entirely new choreography with absolutely no relevance with previous one. All dancers in non-indian dance forms or styles are fully trained dancers at competitive levels.

These dances have won/taught at recreational, competition and as freelance paid or volunteer workshops (with/without performances) under the exclusive label of Grace And Grooves LLC, or Hetal Nagaraj and our other past/present choreographers and our elites as Assistant Choreographers:Nirja Setty and Ashna Pethe.

Format of below listing – Song Name, Movie/Album-Year, Starring or Singers/if private album. Choreographers Name. Assistant Choreographer as Asst. (Practices or few couple sequences.).

The number of songs prepared differently do not relate to the number of performances:

  • Bollywood-Maine Payal Hai Chhankaai-Album (1999), Falguni Pathak.
    • 2nd Place Group-Best Dress, Best Choreography. Hetal Nagaraj. Direct Competition Work. Irving-Texas, Plano-Texas.
      • This dance was inspired from Hetal Nagaraj’s own cousin sister’s dance:Jasmin Bhatt.
    • Different choreography was then taught twice to 2 different age groups and was successfully performed in Group and Duet in cultural events at Irving-Texas, Arlington-Texas, Grapevine, Texas.
      • Above were different age groups had successfully cleared auditions in other Bollywood Competitions as well.(Duets).
  • Bollywood-Dil To Pagal Hai Medley (1997-Shahrukh Khan, Karishma Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit Nene). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Chak Dhoom Dhoom(1997-Shahrukh Khan, Karishma Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit Nene). Group-Students, Carrollton-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Tumko Piya Dil Diya Kitne Naaz Se, Shikari (1963). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Pankh Hote Re Ud Aati Re, Sehra(1963). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Irving-Texas
  • Tollywood- Maan Karate – Dambakku (Sivakarthikeyan, Hansika), Hetal Nagaraj. Duet-Couples. Lewisville-Texas, Plano-Texas.
  • Tollywood – Its Time to Party – Attarintiki Daredi (Pawan Kalyan, Samantha, Hamsa Nandini) Hetal Nagaraj. Duet. Plano-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Nenjinile Nenjinile, Dil Se. (1998-Shahrukh Khan, Preety Zinta). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Jiya Jale, Dil Se (1998-Shahrukh Khan, Preety Zinta). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Chale Jaise Hawaien, Main Hoon Na (2004-Shahrukh Khan, Sushmita Sen). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Carrollton-Texas, Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Sasural Genda Phool, Delhi 6 (Dance India Dance). Remix-Shakti Mohan-Youtube Version (Public). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Carrollton-Texas.
  • Bollywood Medley-Manwa Laage – Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Flowermound-Texas, Highland Village-Texas.
  • Ni Maen Nacha – Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Flowermound-Texas, Highland Village-Texas.
  • Bollywood-SemiClassical(Kathak): Kehna Hi Kya(Bombay, 1995), Hetal Nagaraj. Student-Solo-Adult(Below 30 Age). Coppell-Texas.
  • Bollywood- Taal Medley (Taal, 1999). Hetal Nagaraj. Student-Duet. Coppell-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Mujhe Rang De-Thakshak (1999-Ajay Devgan, Tabu). Hetal Nagaraj. Duet-Adults Students. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Jai Ho-SlumDog Millionaire (Remix 2009). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Coppell-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Sa Ni Dha Pa, Colonial Cousins(1996) by Lezz (Leslie Lewis) and Hariharan. Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Lewisville-Texas, Coppell-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Pretty Woman, Kal Ho Na Ho. (2003-Shahrukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Barso Re Megha Barso, Guru (2007-Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Irving-Texas, Adults.
  • Bollywood-Pari Hoon Main, Album-Dhuan(1990) by Suneeta Rao. Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Coppell-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Aika Dajiba, Album-Aika Dajiba(2002) by Vaishali Samant(Ishita Arun and Milind Gunaji) Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Tunak Tunak Tun, Album-Tunak Tunak Tun(1998), by Daler Mehndi. Hetal Nagaraj. Lewisvile-Texas, Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Pallo Latke, Naukar(1979-Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Sau Tarah Ke, Dishoom(2016-John Abraham, Varun Dhawan, Jacqueline Fernandez). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Frisco-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Badtameez Dil, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013-Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students.
  • Bollywood-Morni Baga Ma Bole, Lamhe(1991-Sridevi, Anil Kapoor). Hetal Nagaraj. Duet-Students. Coppell-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Morni Baga Ma Bole, Lamhe (1991-Sridevi, Anil Kapoor). Hetal Nagaraj Solo. Coppell-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Sadi Gali, Tanu Weds Manu (2011-Ft. Kangna Ranaut R Madhavan). Hetal Nagaraj. Lewisville-Texas, Irving/Las Colinas-Texas.
  • Barso Re Megha Barso, Guru (2007-Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan). Hetal Nagaraj. Solo. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Gana Baja De, by Hey Bro, Sunidhi Chauhan, Feat. Ali Zafar, Ganesh Acharya. (2014) Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. 2:00 Southlake-Texas.
  • Bollywood-U-n-I (Mere Dil Vich Hum Tum) (Saif Ali Khan,Rani Mukerji). Hetal Nagaraj. Irving-Texas, Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Radha Nachegi, Tevar(2014-Sonakshi Sinha, Manoj Bajpayee). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Frisco-Texas,
  • Bollywood-Aaj Radha Ko Shyam, Chand Ka Tukda- (1994-Sridevi, Salman Khan). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Radha Nachegi(Tevar-2014). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Southlake-Texas.
  • Radha Ko Shyam(Chaand Ka Tudka-1994). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Southlake-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Kala Chashma, Baar Baar Dekho (2016-Sidharth M, Katrina K). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Plano-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Radha On The Dance Floor – Student of the Year (2012-Alia Bhatt, Sidharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Flowermound-Texas. Frisco-Texas.
  • Tollywood(Telugu)-Down Down, Race Gurram(2014-Allu Arjun, Shruti Hassan, S.S Thaman). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Plano-Texas.
  • Tollywood(Telugu)-Down Down, Race Gurram(2014-Allu Arjun, Shruti Hassan, S.S. Thaman). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Boys and Girls. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Tollywood(Telugu)-Down Down, Race Gurram(2014-Allu Arjun, Shruti Hassan, S.S. Thaman). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Boys and Girls. Irving-Texas.
  • Tollywood(Telugu Cinema)-Sweety Song, Race Gurram(2014-Allu Arjun, Shruti Haasan, Saloni, Prakash Raj) Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Plano-Texas.
  • Tollywood Medley-Race Gurram Medley. Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Boys and Girls, Plano-Texas.
  • Tollywood Medley-Race Gurram Medley. Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Girls. Plano-Texas.
  • Tollywood (Telugu Cinema) Bharatha Vedamuga, Pournami(2006-Prabhas, Trisha) Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Adults-Lewisville, Texas.
  • Tollywood(Telugu Cinema) Vaana Chinukulu, – Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu, (2013-Mahesh Babu, Venkatesh, Samantha, Anjali-SVSC) Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Adults, Lewisville-Texas.
  • Tollywood(Telugu Cinema) Banthi Poola Janaki, Baadshah(2013-Jr.NTR, Kajal Aggarwal). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Adults-Lewisville, Texas.
  • Bollywood-Ek Pal Ka Jeena(Copy That Exact)KAHO NA PYAR HAI(2000-Hrithik Roshan, Amisha Patel). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Irving-Las Colinas, Texas.
  • Bollywood-Maye Ne Maye, Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994-Salman Khan, Madhuri Dixit), Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Om Ganeshai Namah-Remix Album(Unknown) – Hetal Nagaraj. Coppell-Texas.
  • Bollywood Style-classical Bharatnatyam-Deep Poojanam-Shlokas/Private Album(Morning Prayers)-Hetal Nagaraj. Coppell-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Dumpling Warrior Remix -Hetal Nagaraj. Tap Choreography-Nirja Setty. Coppell-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Aaj Blue Hai Paani Paani.( Private-Album Yoyo Honey Singh)-Coppell-Texas. Adults-Students. Baby-Shower Party Workshop.
  • Bollywood-Kabhi Aar Kabhi Paar, Remix-by Raghav(2004). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Flowermound-Texas, Lewisville-Texas. Southlake-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Dil Ne Dil Ko Pukaara, Kaho Na Pyar Hai (2000-Hritik Roshan, Amisha Patel). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-All Boys. Lewisville-Texas. Keller-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Marathi/Hindi-Apsara (Abhishek Salve)- Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Duet. Keller-Texas. Marathi Dances.
  • Bollywood-BreakFree Remix – Adults-Solo, (Krazzy 4, 2008) 2:40. Coppell-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Aaja Nachle, Aaja Nachle(2007-Madhuri Dixit, Konkona Sen, Kunal Kapoor, Akshaye Khanna). Hetal Nagaraj. Solo-Students. Plano-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Nagada Sang Dhol,  Ram Leela (2013-Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Frisco-Texas, Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Nagada Sang Dhol Remix w/added beats, Ram-Leela (2013-Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Koi Ladki Hai Jab, Dil To Pagal Hai(1997-Shahrukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Karishma Kapoor). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Lewisville-Texas, Carrollton-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Mangalam Ganesham.(Dev, 2004 ) Duet-Students. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Mangalam Ganesham. Solo-Student. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Come & Get It Remix. Album – Come And Get it by Selena Gomez (2013). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Chhaliya – Tashan (2008-Kareena Kapoor, Akshay Kumar). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Senorita – Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara(2011). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Lewisville-Texas,
  • Bollywood-Senorita – Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara(2011). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Adults-Coppell/Texas.
  • Bollywood-Gallan Goodiyaan, Dil Dhadakne Do (2015-Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah, Priyanka Chopra, Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma). Duet-Students.
    • Copy That On Request-Touch Dance Studio Choreographed by Nischal Rana (Public Video on Youtube-Go Check Them Out). Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Chittiyaan Kalaiyaan, Roy-Meet Bros Anjjan, Kanika Kapoor(2015). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. (4-8) Southlake-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Deewangi Deewangi, Om Shanti Om (2011-Shahrukh Khan, Deepika Padukone). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Frisco-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Deewangi Deewangi, Om Shanti Om((2011-Shahrukh Khan, Deepika Padukone) Hetal Nagaraj. Solo-Student. Frisco-Texas.
  • IndiaWale Medley. Hetal Nagaraj. Solo-Student. Frisco-Texas. Group-Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Ho Jayegi Balle, Album-Bhangra King (2014) Daler Mehdi By Daler Mehdi. Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students.  Plano-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Dardi Rab Rab, Album-Bhangra King (2014)Daler Mehdi By Daler Mehdi. Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students Plano-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Maye Ne Maye, Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994-Salman Khan, Madhuri Dixit), Hetal Nagaraj. Solo. Plano-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Badtameez Dil, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013-Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone). Hetal Nagaraj. Couples-Duet. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Khuda Jaane, Bachna Ae Haseeno. (2008-Ranbir Kapoor,Deepika Padukone) Duet. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Teri Ore, Singh Is King (2008-Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif). Duet. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Chaliya(Tashan, 2008), Hetal Nagaraj. Solo. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Tum Agar Saamne, Raaz (2002-Dino Morea, Bipasha Basu). Duet. Coppell-Texas.
  • Bollywood Bhangra-Daler Mehdi Medley – Dardi, Group-Students. Lewisville-Texas,
  • Bollywood Bhangra – Balle Ball, Plano-Texas,
  • Bollywood Bhangra – Tunak. Hetal Nagaraj. Irving-Texas.
  • Tollywood(Telugu Cinema)-Attarintiki Daredi, It’s Time To Party (2013-Pawan Kalyan, Samantha, Hamsa Nandini) Hetal Nagaraj. Couple-Duet. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Chittiyaan Kalaiyaan, Roy-Meet Bros Anjjan, Kanika Kapoor (2015). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. (9 to 11). Frisco-Texas.
  • Tollywood(Telugu Cinema)-Ohoho Ammayi Song, Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu(2013-Mahesh Babu, Samantha-SVSC). Hetal Nagaraj. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Heer, Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012-Shah Rukh Khan,Katrina Kaif,Gulzar) Hetal Nagaraj. Solo. Grapevine-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Heer, Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012-Shah Rukh Khan,Katrina Kaif,Gulzar) Hetal Nagaraj. Solo. Euless-Texas.
  • Bollywood- Laage, Happy New Year (2015) Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone. Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students-Kids. 2:55. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Manwa Laage (4 Mins), Happy New Year (2015) Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone. Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students-Adults. Southlake-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Medley-Aika Dajiba, Colonial Cousins, Jai Ho. Hetal Nagaraj. Asst. Mansi Chauhan. Group-Students. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Tollywood(Telugu Cinema)-Sivuni Aana, Bahubali (2015-Prabhas, Rana, Anushka, Tamannaah). Group. Lewisville-Texas.
    • 1st Place with the best dress, best choreography, graceful theme, best-makeup Hetal Nagaraj. Asst. Choreographer-Mansi Chauhan. Competition Work-Hetal Nagaraj. Solo.
  • Hindi Bahubali, Kaun Hai Voh, Group and Solo-Students. Tantex-Hetal Nagaraj. Lewisville-Texas, Irving-Texas.
  • Tamil Bahubali, Siva Sivaya Potri. Group and Solo-Students. Hetal Nagaraj, Asst. Mansi Chauhan.
  • Bollywood-Thug Le, Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl (2011-Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma). Mansi Chauhan. Asst. Hetal Nagaraj. Group and Solo-Students. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Aaja Nachle, Aaja Nachle(Remix-2011). Mansi Chauhan. (Auditions-Selected). Solo. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-India Wale, Happy New Year (2015) Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone. Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Woh Kishna Hai, Kisna(2005-Vivek Oberoi, Antonia Bernath, Isha Sharvani, Amrish Puri). Mansi Chauhan. Solo. Iskon Temple, Dallas-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Thug Le-Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl(Remix-Own). Hetal Nagaraj. Solo. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Mujhe Rang De-Thakshak (1999-Ajay Devgan, Tabu). Deepthi Chandrasekaran, Hetal Nagaraj. Group Students. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Nimbooda-Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999-Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan). Mansi Chauhan, Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Nimbooda-Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999-Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan). Mansi Chauhan. Asst. Hetal Nagaraj. Solo-Students. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Woh Kisna Hai-Kisna (2005-Vivek Oberoi, Antonia Bernath, Isha Sharvani, Amrish Puri). Deepthi Chandrasekaran. Group-Students. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Chhalka Chhalka Re, Saathiya. (2002-Rani Mukherjee, Vivek Oberoi). Hetal Nagaraj, Asst.Deepthi Chandrasekeran. Group-Students. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood Lavani -Pinga, Bajirao Mastani (2015-Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra). Mansi Chauhan, Asst. Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Shiv Tandav-Album- Uma Mohan Ji & Times Music (Unknown} Hetal Nagaraj. Age 6 to 10. Intermediate. Frisco West-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Shiv Tandav-Album-Uma Mohan Ji & Times Music, Hetal Nagaraj. Age 6 to 9. Pre-Competition. (Unknown}. Frisco East-Texas.
  • Bollywood- Shankarji Mix from Television Series – Hetal Nagaraj. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood- Shankarji Mix from Television Series – Hetal Nagaraj. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood Ranveer Singh Medley-Tune Maari Entriyaan-Gunday (2013)+Jigar Da Tukda(2011) Hetal Nagaraj. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Jug Ghumaya(Sultan-2016) – Hetal Nagaraj. Southlake-Texas.
  • O Re Piya(Aaja Nachle-2007 – Hetal Nagaraj. Southlake-Texas.
  • Kaala Chashma(Baar Baar Dekho-2016)– Hetal Nagaraj. Southlake-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Jai Ganesha Deva, AgniPath(2012) – Group-Students. Hetal Nagaraj. Las-Colinas, Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Jai Ganesha Deva, AgniPath(2012) – Solo/Auditions-Student. Hetal Nagaraj. Las Colinas-Irving, Texas.
  • Bollywood-Mohenjo Daro (2016)+Boat Song (Kuttanadan Punjayile – Kerala Boat Song, Vidya Vox English Remix, 2016) – Hetal Nagaraj. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Taal (Western Remix, Bollywood Style Classical Bharatnatyam)-Hetal Nagaraj. Duet-Aduts, Coppell-Texas.
  • Bollywood Moorni “Balle Balle”. Southlake-Texas.
    • on Request of Dholrhythms Dance Workshops, Panjabi MC. (Check them on You-tube)
    • + Dus Bahane (Dus, 2005) Medley -Hetal Nagaraj.
  • Bollywood-Dhunki (Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, 2011) – Hetal Nagaraj. Frisco-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Radha Nachegi(Tevar-2014) + Kaala Chashma (Baar Baar Dekho 2016) – Hetal Nagaraj. Plano-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Medley-Nagada Sang Dhol (2013) + Chittiyaan Kalaiyaan (2015) + Radha On Dance Floor-Remix (Student of Year.2013) Frisco-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Maa Tuje Salaam (A.R. Rahman – Maa Tujhe Salaam, 1997) – Hetal Nagaraj. Solo Appearance- Mansi Chauhan. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood- Le Gayee – Dil To Pagal Hai, 1997. Hetal Nagaraj. Tap Choreography-Nirja Setty. Coppell-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Ashai Mugam- ft. Vidya Vandana – Shankar Tucker. Hetal Nagaraj. Frisco-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Udi Udi Jaai, Raees (Shah rukh Khan, Mahira Khan, 2017) – Hetal Nagaraj, Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Apsara (Abhishek Salve) – Hetal Nagaraj, Mansi Chauhan. Group-Students. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Dhoom Machale (Dhoom-3, 2013) – Hetal Nagaraj. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood- Kaala Chashma (Baar Baar Dekho 2016) – Hetal Nagaraj. Plano-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Let’s Nacho (Kapoor & Sons, 2016), Hetal Nagaraj. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Tamma Tamma (Remix-Badrinath Ki Dulhania) – Hetal Nagaraj. Asst. Mansi Chauhan. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Manwa Laage, Happy New Year (2015). Students-Groups Adults-Deepthi Chandrasekaran. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-London Thumakda, Queen (2014). Deepthi Chandrasekaran. Groups Students-Adults. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Bholi Si Surat (Remix-Jai Matt) – Hetal Nagaraj. Asst. Ashna Pethe. Choreographer: Hetal Nagaraj. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Cham Cham (Baaghi, 2016) – Hetal Nagaraj. Students-Group. Frisco-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Befikre Mashup (Befikre-2016, Baaghi-2016) – Hetal Nagaraj. Plano-Texas.
  • Bollywood Lavani – Galyan Sankli Sonyachi (Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin, 1991) – Hetal Nagaraj. Solo Appearance-Mansi Chauhan. Plano-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Kehna Hi Kya+Mixup Medley, (Bombay, 1995) – Hetal Nagaraj. Student-Adult-Solo. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Mohe Rang Do Laal – Mansi Chauhan, Solo. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Pallo Latke (1979-Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle)-Hetal Nagaraj. Duet-Students. Frisco West-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Tere Naina (Chandni Chowk To China, 2014). Student-Solo, Lewisville-Texas.
  • Kay Sara Sara(Pukar, 2000-Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit). Solo-Student. Lewisville-Texas
  • Bollywood-Nachde Ne Saare(Baar Baar Dekho, 2016). Lewisville-Texas, Plano-Texas.
  • Bollywood-Aaja Nachle Remix. Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Lewisville-Texas, Plano-Texas,
  • Bollywood-Nachenge Saari Raat Remix (Junooniyat Movie). Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Lewisville-Texas, Plano-Texas.
  • Tollywood (Telugu Movie Cinema) Laychalo (Ram Charan, Rakul Preet Singh). Choreography : Mansi Chauhan. Choreographer-Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Students. Solo-Auditions. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Tollywood (Telugu Movie Cinema) Bahubali. Kanna Nidurinchara. Hetal Nagaraj. Group Lewisville-Texas.
    • Bollywood(Kana Soja Zara). Bahubali. Hetal Nagaraj. Group Lewisville-Texas.
    • Tamil Movie Cinema – Kanna Nee Thoongadaa. Bahubali. Hetal Nagaraj. Group Lewisville-Texas.
  • Tollywood(Telugu Movie Cinema) Bahubali. Kanna Nidurinchara. Hetal Nagaraj. Group Irving-Texas.
    • Bollywood(Kana Soja Zara). Bahubali. Hetal Nagaraj. Group Irving-Texas.
    • Tamil Movie Cinema – Kanna Nee Thoongadaa. Bahubali. Hetal Nagaraj. Group Irving-Texas.
  • Tollywood(Telugu Movie Cinema) Bahubali. Kanna Nidurinchara. Hetal Nagaraj. Group: Plano/Frisco-Texas.
    • Bollywood(Kana Soja Zara). Bahubali. Hetal Nagaraj. Group Plano/Frisco-Texas.
    • Kanna Nee Thoongadaa. Bahubali. Hetal Nagaraj. Group Plano/Frisco-Texas.
  • Tollywood(Telugu Movie Cinema) Gudillo Madhillo. Movie-DJ. Hetal Nagaraj. Bollywood Hip Hop. Irving-Texas, Plano/Frisco-Texas.
  • Tollywood(Telugu Movie Cinema)  Seeti Maar. Movie-DJ. Hetal Nagaraj. Bollywood Hip Hop. Irving-Texas, Plano/Frisco-Texas.
  • Bollywood Hip Hop Unchi Hai Building (Judwa-2). Hetal Nagaraj. Irving-Texas, Plano/Frisco-Texas.
  • Tollywood(Telugu Movie Cinema) Pranaamam. Movie-Janatha Garage. Hetal Nagaraj. Indian Hip Hop.
  • Bollywood – Ding Dang. Movie-MunnaMichael. Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Irving/Texas.
  • Bollywood – 9 Se 12 Movie-Judwaa 2. Varun Dhawan, Jacqueline. Group-Plano-Irving/Texas.
  • Bollywood – Chalte Chalte, Movie-Pakeezah. Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Lewisville/Texas.
  • Bollywood – Piya. Meena Kumari. Movie-Sahib, Biwi Aur Gulam. Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Lewisville/Texas.
  • Bollywood – Tumko Piya. Movie-Shikari. Hetal Nagaraj. Group-Lewiville/Texas.
  • Bollywood Bhangra Remix w/Shape of You – Hetal Nagaraj. Group – Irving-Texas, Plano-Texas, Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood Radha. Movie-Jab Harry Met Sejal. Hetal Nagaraj. Group – Irving – Texas, Plano-Texas.
    • Tollywood Radha. Movie-Jab Harry Met Sejal. Hetal Nagaraj. Group – Irving – Texas, Plano-Texas.
    • Tamil Radha. Movie-Jab Harry Met Sejal. Hetal Nagaraj. Irving – Texas, Plano-Texas.
  • Bollywood – Kar Gai Chul. Movie-Kapoor & Sons. Hetal Nagaraj. Irving-Texas.
  • Bollywood – Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya. Hetal Nagaraj. Irving-Texas. Lewisville-Texas.
  • Bollywood – Hanuman Gun Sagar . Private Album. Hetal Nagaraj. Irving-Texas, Plano-Texas.

The pre-made MP3 files in various combinations of these songs are available with/without added beats/musics from other sources for sale for $10 for each remix with exclusive copyright to re-use without using our name in tag anywhere. The original songs are available everywhere irrespective of copyrights. Ours is performance oriented and its not original song. you can own it for your dance school or dance groups without any efforts by buying it. No edits. Take it or Leave it. Choreography not included with these files. Welcome to ask for it and it will be sold with seperate price tag depending on copyrights on it (as they are our Competition Dances). Average mixes are about 5 minutes while some up-to 10minutes.

Why ?

Because At Grace And Grooves LLC, we don’t really like to repeat same songs unless requested a lot or for specific purposes even for teaching 😉 OR we make them all over again with other sets of remixes or beats or added music to it. It is FUN and that is what Bollywood/Tollywood/Indian Movie Dances ALL ABOUT.  FUN……..SAFELY 😉

OH YEAH, WE ARE GOING TO TRASH THESE MIX-UPS ANYWAYS 😉

Exclusive Copyrights by Reach Media for Hetal Joshi | Grace & Grooves | Grace Creations | Grace And Grooves 2012-2017.  

This material can not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.  If found being copied without permission will be sued in the court of law.

#historyneverrepeats #alwaysnew #alwaysfun #fresh #happy #fun #graceandgrooves #hetaljoshim #sowhatifitsbollywood #sowhatifitstollywood #takeitorleaveit #straightbackground #mp3files #store #noiterations #funwithcreativity #intelligencewithknowledge #knowledgeforfun #lovingit #norules

Grace And Grooves Annual Updates By Hetal Nagaraj

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Grace And Grooves Annual Updates | Hetal Joshi M, Hetal Nagaraj.

For research students/art enthusiasts and for dance credit interns – Pls contact Ms. Hetal : Here OR here directly.

Grace And Grooves holds exclusive rights for all the content & pictures being posted with permission of organizers for exclusive Grace And Groove use only. Exclusive Copyrights by Reachh Mediaa from 2013 for Hetal Joshi | Grace & Grooves | Grace Creations | Grace And Grooves 2012-current

All Pictures posted here are with an exclusive consent of participating students, parents or school staffs. This material can not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Competitions Counted On Our Lists :

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The Competitions & Performances that we go have Judges with following qualifications with full transparency required for students to be eligible such as submitting videos, pictures, program specs, and all the other details :

  1. Degrees in Performing Arts (Indian for Indian Dances),
  2. Straight Background With Full Proof & Traceability,
  3. Versatile Dancers In Their Genre  – Non Stop Stage Dancers.
  4. Full Hands-Onn w/Knowledge From Right Sources ( traceable background or universities-not the universities such as gandharv.)

Competitions We Do :

As such we have won several competitions but we have only accounted in our bags that we have done it independently ourselves and have judges who are qualified in field of Indian Performing Arts-who know what to look for in dance forms or styles, if mentioned likewise.

  • Non-Voting, Strict by Genre, Category, Dance Forms, Rules of Dance Form, Rubrics, Guidelines, Marks and Feedbacks by Judges with straight background, Local or International Depending on all of above.
  • Competitions in partnership with other dance schools/teachers are NOT INCLUDED in our list.
  • We do not sponsor the awards or competitions that we take part in. Please contact hetal at mail2hets@gmail.com for sponsorships.
  • We do not do reality competitions YET. These are not institutionalized or educational competitions.
  • Competitions where voting criteria is 10/100 or more at any levels are not included in our list. You are welcome to take freelance lessons from us to participate but we will not participate in voting. We will not take those on our list.
  • Judges who do not have any knowledge of dance or cannot outline the difference between simple things such as bollywood vs folk, fusion vs bollywood, and so on! If you do not know the rules of dance form then there is no point in judging. And so, we do not take part in those competitions.
  • Participant Awards are NOT listed or considered for us-obviously and that includes students who get participant awards during competitions just for participating and not winning competitions for any runner ups awards either. Culture awards are not competition awards 🙂
  • Wins at the Competitions that misrepresented categories/competitions/malrepresentation by the organizers are NOT listed.
    • Eg-Represented as Indian FOLK Competition but it was actually a Bollywood Competition and so they are NOT LISTED HERE. We have won such competitions as well.
    • Only legitimate competitions are listed.
    • We DO NOT teach Tap/Jazz/Ballet. Students who took part in fusion dances that included tap/jazz or ballet were trained from Ballet Academy of Texas(Coppell) and Prestige Dance Company(Lewisville-former Coppell Dance Center)for 2months+ or were already avid trained dancers or good gymnasts.
      • We taught them only Indian Classical Dance(Bharatnatyam)or Indian Folk Dance and the Fusion work to go together based on what they knew.
    • Some competitions are listed together as only 1 award was given for consecutive years win or in same year as prizes had material gifts/or gift cards for participants or same work received awards in 2 different places by different participants or same participants. There was only 1 ceremony for awards that happened.
    • Competitions that are not worth our attention –>
      • Students are neglected, mis-treated, insulted by organizers are NOT worth of our time. We will pass their info-you are welcome to compete but keep us out of it.
      • Organizers are in favor of other dance schools and allowed several re-takes to them but not to us-for no good reason are NOT worth our time. We DO NOT want children to go through that traumatic experiences.
      • Students are questioned about their well-being priorities only because organizer couldn’t see the child winning in-spite of stopping the vote entries are NOT worth of your child’s time.
      • Organizers that offer inappropriate stage areas, dressing room areas or unsafe dance conditions are eliminated from our list for any future participations due to SAFETY GUIDELINES concerning child’s safety. We don’t come there to dance in 5-8 steps of stage area.
      • A stage or organizer who cannot respect a child’s presence while talking just about anything that they have in mind insulting kids and their parents whatsoever, esp. talking in extremely loud voice and misbehaving in front of children because you couldn’t handle pressures (while others were allowed to do same-all drama in front of child)-is not worth our attention.

Please learn your manners FIRST when you treat a child.

Stop treating them like trash — this tells us about your parenting! Not our parents’.

      • An organizer who is bias to us in all the privileges given to other participants will not need our attention at any given point of time. If you have made up your mind in not allowing us to avail the privileges then why should we make kids suffer through your misconduct and inappropriate behavior just for a trophy ?

Constructive feedbacks are very welcomed. We have come this far only because of constructive feedbacks. Please tell us your background before you judge!

All of above are NOT sarcastic humor incidents and are ruled out by experiences in recent competitions and we do not want any child to face such a traumatic experience just for a competition! Our kids/students are very precious to us. 

Other Blog Posts where such a traumatic incident happened : Read Here.

Stop blaming parents and kids for your own issues. Open Stats @Cqunce Inc.

This post was updated in May 15, 2019 | May 22, 2021.

Exclusive Copyrights by Reach Media for Hetal Joshi | Grace & Grooves | Grace Creations | Grace And Grooves 2012-2021.  This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.  

Grace And Grooves LLC, Names, Logo(s):

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Everybody in this world has their inspiration from somewhere or something. So do we and all our names. Just out of sky it did not come in our mind to get these names on our paper to register them as our own. With so many theories out there about names, we had to clear our own lists of all the DBA(s), Logo(s)….

logo

Our Logo in 2012. It had variations such as Grace And Grooves, Grace n Grooves, Grace Grooves, Grace & Grooves, etc.

Grace And Grooves LLC (2012) : This is sort of like additional information on how we got our name. As shared in link above on Grace And Grooves LLC(2012), we got our name from audiences. Topic 2 From Here.

 

 

 

Here’s little more to nail-biting situation we were put through for name!

PayPalLogo

One of other variation that was used…2012 onwards.

 

 

 

We encountered unforeseen challenges during our participation in this walk-in competition. When asked to provide the name of our dance company, we realized we had not yet established one and were unsure how to respond. It was surprising, as the event organizer had not disclosed the requirement for a company name prior to the competition and had accepted our entry without such information.

Despite this uncertainty, the grace, poise, and originality of our choreography spoke for itself. Our performance was even compared to a widely viewed YouTube routine with over a million views. Though this initially caused us some concern, our efforts were ultimately validated when we were honored with the first-place award.

We were informed that, should we win, we would need to provide a name by the end of the event for the purpose of announcing the results. We were the only participants without an official group or company name at the time, which made our entry stand out. It became apparent that the organizers were not in favor of unregistered participants, and this requirement seemed to reflect that preference.

cropped-logo-to-update-on-blog-cover.jpg

Our New Logo in 2015 September that we got made for Indian Folk Dances, Bharatnatyam and Fusion Dances. Bollywood was not really program back then. We started Bollywood off-late after September and logo was already done by then!!

During one of our early performances, a kind American attendee—married to an Indian—approached our team with a heartfelt compliment. Though she did not understand the language or the meaning of the song, she expressed that the choreography was so moving, it touched her deeply. Upon being asked, she specifically mentioned the final dance sequence as the moment that brought tears to her eyes.

The piece in question depicted the spiritual bond between Meera, a devoted follower of Lord Krishna, and the Lord Himself. Before the performance, the narrative was shared with the audience to provide context. The particular sequence that resonated with her portrayed Meera’s complete surrender to Lord Krishna through the Hare Krishna dhun (devotional chants), symbolizing her transcendence from the material world.

This touching duet was performed by Nirja Setty and her school friend (name withheld upon request), both adorned in custom-designed Kerala-style Tissue Pattu Pavadai. The fabric was specially ordered from India and the costumes were meticulously stitched and re-designed locally in Irving-Coppell, Texas, USA.

The emotional impact of the dance, especially as seen through the eyes of someone unfamiliar with the language but moved by its expression, marked a defining moment for us. It was in that very moment—when we were called on stage to receive the first-place award—that we spontaneously named ourselves Grace and Grooves. The name was spoken instinctively, and we immediately embraced it. It felt right. It felt like us.

The judges offered glowing feedback: “Beautiful choreography, dramatic appearances, well-executed, and stunning costumes and props.” One judge even asked, “How did you manage to choreograph something so beautiful to this song?”—a question we’ve since heard many times, and each time it brings us joy.

The choreography was created by Hetal Nagaraj, drawing from her rich training and inspirations. At the time, both performers were studying Bharatanatyam and Indian Folk Dance (pure forms) under our guidance. The intention was to prepare them as a duet team for an upcoming competition, pending audition results. While awaiting those results, we discovered this walk-in competition and decided to participate spontaneously.

This choreography has since won numerous awards—often back-to-back—and continues to captivate audiences. It’s a piece no one seems to tire of, and we continue to be humbled by the recurring question: “How did you do it?”

CALL NOW 972 979 2559 or Email : info@graceandgrooves.com

colors dance

Grace Creations Logo that was created much later. Before that,  several works were done in fusion dances.

Grace Creations(2013) :

Our name was directly inspired by an Indian artistic dance company based on the East Coast of the United States. From the moment we were introduced to their work—through a friend who shared their YouTube videos—we were captivated. This introduction occurred after our friend had seen Mrs. Nagaraj’s semi-classical performance and felt compelled to show us similar, inspiring content.

Another key source of inspiration was an Indian dance school in Georgia, USA, known for their beautifully executed and uniquely crafted fusion choreography. Both of these esteemed institutions are rooted in Bharatanatyam and have made a significant impact on the Indian classical and fusion dance communities in the U.S.

While we admired and began following their work, we were also committed to developing our own artistic identity. We infused a wide range of styles and dance forms into our choreography—sometimes staying within the boundaries of a particular tradition, and at other times pushing creative limits entirely. Nonetheless, all of our students received foundational training in the original classical forms to ensure the integrity and authenticity of each style was respected.

Much of our fusion choreography is performed under the banner Grace Creations—a creative extension of our artistic vision. Grace Creations would later evolve to perform independently in the years to come and is currently on hiatus.

CALL NOW 972 979 2559 or Email : info@graceandgrooves.com

Nruthyakala Dance Academy(2017) : The word comes from words Nruthya (or Nritya meaning dance) and Kala meaning Art. We had in mind several other names but we needed a name that goes for both the dance forms – Bharatanatyam and Indian Folk Dances(India). Main idea was to have Nruthya(Nritya meaning Dance) that is combination of Nritta and Natya – both;thus separating these two beautiful forms from all the other programs that we offer. Eventually, it may happen that Bharatnatyam and Indian Folk Dances may operate separately but until then this is it-we loved this as it best-fits our need!

CALL NOW 972 979 2559 or Email : info@graceandgrooves.com

Mirchi Dance Academy(2017): This word was decided last year! Very well, it came from Red Chillies Entertainment (An Entertainment Company in Mumbai, India). Mirchi(meaning hot pepper/chillies) is always a must have in plate if you have roots from Kathyavaad. Coming from hybrid-gujarati family, we were born eating tasty peppers/chillies with our all-time favorite theplas, stuffed paranthas or bajri-rotlas with all the other goodies. Some habits don’t go, they say! From our food plate to our DBA name. And you thought we don’t love Bollywood :)…Yes, bring it onn. It is tasty!

Kalasri and (often used kalashri by most media) Classical was as is acquisition, the name is not changed. Company was too teritorial for irving, keller, southlake and south irving to have logo rather on verge of shutdown until Ms. Hetal took it over.

Timeline of company, mergers and acquisitions.

Logo 2018 – Grace And Grooves was group until 2025. Here’s the logo until 2025 June 2.

In 2024, Hetal received the registered trademark for the company.

Here’s other company’s logo –

grace effects logo
g2 dance factory and g2 dance building sign
mirchi dance academy
texas all star
dhamaal events

Date: August 15, 2017 | June 2, 2025.

Website : www.graceandgrooves.com

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/GraceAndGrooves

Twitter : https://twitter.com/GraceAndGrooves

Youtube Channel :https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSbZYIr0EPzrfPNzH_0FcVw

Exclusively written by Hetal Nagaraj. Copyright Reach Media for Grace And Grooves | Grace Creations | Nruthyakala Dance Academy | Mirchi Dance Academy | 2011-current. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Recital 2017: JALSO (Celebrations in Life) Nritya(Dance) Ki Masti (Fun). April 9.

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Grace And Grooves Annual Events Recital 2017

Recital 2017: JALSO (Celebrations, Absolute Fun-in Life)-Nritya(Dance) Ki Masti (Fun). Venue: MCL Grand Theater, Lewisville-Texas. April 9, 2017.

Why Jalso, Nritya Ki Masti ?

 JALSO: Celebrating the Joy of Indian Festivals Through Dance, Culture, and Community

In 2016, while planning our next annual production, we envisioned creating a performance that celebrated the vibrant spirit of Indian festivals, family traditions, and life’s joyous milestones.

During this creative journey, Hetal Joshi Nagaraj was inspired by “Jalso”—a well-known Gujarati cultural festival held in Mumbai, India, recognized for celebrating Gujarati heritage, arts, music, and community.

The word Jalso (જલસો) itself conveys a sense of celebration, festivity, enjoyment, and coming together, making it a fitting inspiration for a production centered on the colors and traditions of Indian culture.

For many Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and families who have made the Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW), Texas region their home for generations, festivals are much more than annual celebrations—they are a meaningful way to preserve cultural identity, strengthen family bonds, and pass traditions from one generation to the next.

Hetal Nagaraj’s vision was to recreate that warmth and vibrancy on stage through dance, music, storytelling, and theatrical presentation.

The production concept explored the many celebrations that define Indian life, including:

  • Traditional festivals
  • Wedding celebrations
  • Family ceremonies
  • Seasonal festivities
  • Community gatherings
  • Cultural customs and life milestones

Through choreography, costumes, music, and storytelling, the audience would experience the richness and diversity of India’s cultural heritage while celebrating the shared values of family, tradition, and community.

From Adi-Shakti to a New Creative Vision, without foresaking fundamentals.

Hetal Joshi Nagaraj’s 2016 production, Adi-Shakti – The Primordial Divine Energy, was designed as a charitable fundraising initiative supporting CRY America Inc.

Through community partnerships, sponsorships, advertising, ticket sales, donations, a fashion showcase, sponsored costumes from premium boutiques, and Grace And Grooves’ own costume collection, the event successfully combined performing arts with community service and philanthropy.

Following the success of Adi-Shakti, Hetal Nagaraj’s original vision for the 2017 recital was to present a fully ticketed production dedicated to Bharatanatyam, Indian Folk Dance under the working title “Nrutya Ni Masti.” And Bollywood was very new program. Students were just learning.

Hetal Nagaraj was not sure if Bollywood will make it to production or recital part of it.

Why “Nrutya Ni Masti”?

The title combines two meaningful concepts:

  • Nrutya (also spelled Nritya or Nruthya) refers to expressive Indian dance that blends rhythm, movement, storytelling, and emotion.
  • Masti represents joy, celebration, fun, and the lively spirit of togetherness.

Together, Nrutya Ni Masti may be interpreted as “The Joy of Dance” or “A Celebration Through Dance.”

As part of artistic planning, Hetal Nagaraj also obtained appropriate republication and performance permissions for selected Bharatanatyam literature part of the dance genre. These permissions were to waive off IP and Copyright Policies. This ensured that traditional artistic works were presented with respect for both cultural heritage and intellectual property.

When selecting the title, simply using the technical Sanskrit terms Nritta (pure dance) or Natya (dramatic storytelling) did not fully represent the scope of the production. Hetal Nagaraj’s vision extended beyond a single aspect of Indian classical dance—it embraced both expressive storytelling and celebratory cultural performances.

Therefore, the broader and more inclusive term Nrutya was chosen.

Today, Nrutya is the most commonly accepted transliteration in Gujarati, while Nritya is more frequently used in Hindi and Sanskrit, and Nruthya is commonly seen in South Indian languages. Although all three spellings are correct in different linguistic traditions,

“Nrutya Ni Masti” best reflected the Gujarati cultural inspiration behind the production. While Hetal Nagaraj wanted to keep it Hindi influenced so that national language is respected. Thus, Nritya ki Masti.”Nrutya Ni Masti” best reflected the Gujarati cultural inspiration behind the production.

From bollywood as a possibility within the production to bollywood just made it in!

“Nrutya Ni Masti” best reflected the Gujarati cultural inspiration behind the production. While Hetal Nagaraj wanted to keep it Hindi influenced so that national language is respected. Thus, Nritya ki Masti.

In few months because of several packages and 3-4 times a week of lessons, those students progressed from beginners to straight competitions levels. Performances were about results as parents booked to perform in various local shows, other than once a week class.

Ultimately, those songs took the lead of the dance production theme itself.

On a record, Hetal Joshi Nagaraj was not even supposed to take these kids batches in Irving – Las Colinas areas as Deepthi was to handle it but Deepthi called in 1st month itself that boys were giving her hard time.

So Hetal had to take up all the kids batches. Moms then continued with Deepthi. Moms were brought by Hetal Nagaraj too from IANT role play performances and they loved it so wanted to do lessons.

That’s why Hetal Nagaraj did not want to take additional batches. Her schedule was packed! Nonetheless all students graduated in 2021.

Preserving Culture Through the Performing Arts

At Grace And Grooves, every production is designed with a purpose that extends beyond entertainment. Through performances such as Adi-Shakti, Jalso, and Nrutya Ni Masti, our goal is to preserve Indian cultural traditions, promote intercultural understanding, provide meaningful performance opportunities for students and artists, and strengthen community connections through the universal language of dance.

By celebrating festivals, traditions, and the shared experiences of families across generations, these productions help ensure that India’s rich artistic heritage continues to thrive within multicultural communities in Texas and beyond.

Story Line of the Show –

Story Line moves with a 1st generation of NRI who enters the world of multi-generation NRI from festival to festival, community to community, religion to religion, marriage ceremonies and mehdi nights as special feature within the dance ultimately falling in love with Indian asthetic of celebration of life – through dances.

Thoughout the performances, she is teased by multi-generation NRI about the richness she brings from India or is rather traditional mindset. Scenes of movies, literature books and famous known scriptures were demonstrated on the stage by students of Hetal Joshi Nagaraj introducing students to India’s rich culture and heritage along with US history and environment.

It also reflected lessons of wellness through incidences of heat stroke in DFW, Texas Summers and awareness to US cultures.

The show ends with girl teasing them back with richness of values of rich culture and heritage of India celebrating through Mehdi nights London Thumakda and a multi cultural marriage scene.

Thus, the name. Role Play – Ashna, Akhil, Samarth, Nirja, Mansi and Deepthi.

Community Partnerships That Enhanced the Cultural Experience

An important aspect of the production was the collaboration with local businesses and community partners whose services complemented the cultural themes presented on stage. These partnerships not only strengthened community engagement but also highlighted small businesses serving the Indian and South Asian communities across the Dallas–Fort Worth region.

To support the Mehendi (Henna) Ceremony segment of the production—a celebration inspired by one of India’s most cherished pre-wedding traditions—we welcomed several community sponsors, including Sheetal’s Mehendi Arts, Jazz It Up Inc., and The Grace Effect.

The Mehendi ceremony performances celebrated the joy, music, dance, and family traditions associated with Indian wedding festivities, creating an immersive cultural experience for audiences of all backgrounds.

These collaborations reflected our broader mission of supporting local entrepreneurs, promoting culturally rooted businesses, and creating opportunities where performing arts, traditional craftsmanship, and community organizations could come together under one platform.

By integrating local businesses into our productions, Grace And Grooves not only showcased Indian performing arts but also fostered economic and cultural engagement within the community. These partnerships helped audiences experience Indian traditions beyond the stage, celebrating the artistry, customs, and entrepreneurial spirit that contribute to the richness of South Asian cultural heritage.

Such collaborations continue to align with our commitment to community-based arts programming, cultural preservation, small business engagement, and inclusive multicultural experiences, reinforcing the role of the performing arts as a catalyst for education, community connection, and cultural appreciation.

An important component of Nritya Ki Masti – Jalso (Recital 2017) was the collaboration between artists, faculty, students, volunteers, and community partners who collectively contributed to the success of the production.

Costumes –

Ms. Hetal could not even catch up to costumes as the order of bulk costume was stuck in New York while other bulk pack was stuck in snow storm via London.

Adults – mommy and me program got lucky to find their costumes online on amazon and paid extra shipping to get those early, locally.

Because of sudden inclusion of Bollywood back to back lessons, a need for costumes became unevitable and thus, were ordered on time. But then, logistics in snow storm stalled the shipments.

Hetal Nagaraj ran to bulk fabric wholeseller, got the bulk fabric and had to make sample right away. Hetal Nagaraj cloth pin the cuts by hand which then Deepthi stitched. Deepthi did not know much. Deepthi knew some stitch work by machine. Hetal stitched one sample by hand. Hetal just told her to follow exactly as she showed how to.

In urgency, they made about 15 costumes just to pass by 2 weekends. Ms. Hetal completed the rest to top up fancy accessories.

Costumes arrived much later by then performances were done. It was a list of engagement to marriage and festival songs. Since then, Grace and Grooves uses local tailors to get the costumes. While the shipments since then, have accessories and certain clothing materials only.

Thus, the contributor was Jazz It Up Inc., Grace And Grooves’ in-house costume and dance property (prop) division was created and inventory list was thus created because of these infra. This was to establish a sustainable support system which indirectly maanges the organization’s Elite Competition Teams and Pre-Competition Teams Needs.

The division aka Hetal Joshi Nagaraj specializes in designing, sourcing, maintaining, and managing costumes and performance accessories that meet the artistic and technical requirements of Indian performing arts. These few months triggered local manufacturing and local suppliers of bulk materials.

Not only deepthi but Company aka Hetal Joshi Nagaraj uses several local indian and non indian tailors.

In addition to supporting Grace And Grooves productions, costumes are occasionally made available on a rental basis to external students and performers, subject to availability or are sold off when its usages in company fades away. Custom-designed and professionally stitched costumes generally require several weeks of planning and production, reflecting the craftsmanship and preparation involved in creating authentic performance attire.

By maintaining its own costume resources, Grace And Grooves is able to preserve traditional aesthetics, ensure consistency in production quality, and provide students with professionally presented performances while supporting long-term arts education.

Hetal Joshi Nagaraj’s background in textile and fabric – https://www.hetaln.com/designing-projects

A Celebration of Three Distinct Dance Traditions

Nritya Ki Masti – Jalso (Recital 2017) brought together performances in three major Indian dance disciplines:

  • Bharatanatyam
  • Bollywood Dance
  • Indian Folk Dance
  • Community and Festival Batches.

The production featured students ranging in age from 5 to 40 years, each performing within the discipline in which they had received formal training. The recital reflected Grace And Grooves’ philosophy of providing age-inclusive arts education while encouraging lifelong participation in the performing arts.

Choreographer’s Retreat: Showcasing Artistic Leadership

A special highlight of the production was the Choreographer’s Retreat for “Budding choreographers and future leaders“, featuring performances and artistic presentations by:

  • Hetal Nagaraj
  • Mansi Chauhan
  • Deepthi Chandrasekaran

Each choreographer presented unique interpretations and dance styles, demonstrating the diversity and richness of Indian performing arts while inspiring students through professional artistic leadership.

Celebrating Student Milestones’ And 1st of several achievements.

One particularly memorable moment of the recital was the Bharatanatyam presentation by a 10-year-old male student – Samarth Setty, who performed a complete Jatiswaram lasting approximately 5 minutes and 26 seconds under the artistic guidance of Hetal Nagaraj.

The performance represented an important milestone in the student’s classical dance journey and highlighted Grace And Grooves’ commitment to nurturing young artists through structured training, mentorship, and performance opportunities.

Dhamaal Events very first Online Hybrid Class to one student on 10+2 hour of Bharatanatyam workshop from Bhuvaneshwari Murugan across Arkansas, USA was dearly missed. This class was a continuation to Ms. Hetal class but the results were not good thus, student switched back to Ms. Hetal.

Recital 2017 marked an important milestone not only for our students but also for our growing faculty.

The production featured the first independent choreographic works by Mansi Chauhan and Deepthi Chandrasekaran, presented under the artistic mentorship and supervision of Hetal Joshi Nagaraj along with lesson plans that were to adhere to so that students achieve.

While each of them had a roller coaster year with several challenges across the months–they were encouraged to explore own creative voice, every work to remain aligned with Grace And Grooves’ structured curriculum, pedagogical framework, lesson plans, and the technical and artistic standards of the respective dance genre.

Not to mention, achieve latter goals for the students, parents, Hetal Joshi Nagaraj and the company’s upcoming shows, performances, gigs and few other assignments.

This balance between creative independence and educational consistency is a key component of Grace And Grooves’ faculty development philosophy under Hetal Joshi Nagaraj. As a trainer, she makes sure of results (as several parents come for results with specifics to use it for educational purposes) and fun to align with company’s everlasting success ratio with such a magnificent documeted graduate list, revenue part of it as businesses run on revenue and the growth of it.

Emerging interns as future leaders are mentored through a progressive process that enables them to develop choreography, strengthen instructional skills, and build confidence while preserving the authenticity and integrity of each dance form thereby achieve the goals of the company and the students.

The recital therefore represented a significant professional achievement for both choreographers, marking their transition from students and assistants to independent artistic contributors within the Grace And Grooves educational framework.

Students Representing Communities Across North Texas

The recital proudly featured students representing multiple communities, and exclusive students of Hetal Joshi Nagaraj’s locations throughout the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, including:

  • Las Colinas
  • Plano 121 Mcdermott Independence
  • Lewisville
  • Frisco West, 423

Each student performed within their respective discipline, demonstrating months of dedicated training, rehearsals, and artistic development.

At the conclusion of the production, all participating students received 2017 Participation Medals in recognition of their commitment and accomplishments.

In addition, Ashna Pethe was honored as the Student of the Year, receiving a commemorative trophy and a gift voucher in recognition of her dedication, growth, and achievements.

Grace And Grooves also recognized each Interns for their artistic leadership, while students were introduced to the audience along with highlights of their individual accomplishments and progress throughout the year.

Preserving Memories Through Photography and Videography

Documenting performances has always been an important part of preserving artistic growth and organizational history.

Photography for Nritya Ki Masti – Jalso (Recital 2017) was provided by Bombay Photography, while videography and production documentation were managed by The Grace Effect, Grace And Grooves’ internal photography and videography initiative.

The Grace Effect was established exclusively to document the educational journey of Grace And Grooves students, productions, choreographers, and participating artists. Its purpose has always been archival, educational, promotional, and historical documentation for the organization and its community.

Under the direct supervision of Mrs. Hetal Nagaraj, The Grace Effect has remained dedicated exclusively to Grace And Grooves and its affiliated activities. It has never operated as a commercial photography or videography service for outside organizations, private clients, volunteer assignments, or unrelated events.

This dedicated approach has ensured consistency, quality, privacy, and comprehensive documentation of the organization’s artistic journey. Nagaraj Kunchum thus has an uptight on front end camera, at all times near switch boards, all the way up on the balcony or in the light window. As a husband, he just takes care of master file. All the other is assistant crew.

Looking Ahead

Every recital marks both the culmination of one artistic season and the beginning of another.

As the curtains closed on Nritya Ki Masti – Jalso (Recital 2017), planning for the next production was already well underway. The creative team had already selected the theme and title for Recital 2018, continuing Grace And Grooves’ tradition of innovation, cultural storytelling, and artistic excellence.

After all, every ending is simply the opening act of the next performance.

Picture Gallery –

Every Production, or Recital Is a Graduation Milestone

At Grace And Grooves, each recital and production represents more than a public performance—it serves as an important milestone in a student’s artistic journey.

Students demonstrate the knowledge, technique, discipline, and performance skills they have acquired throughout the year, progressing toward higher levels of learning and responsibility. In many ways, every recital functions as a practical graduation, where students advance not only in technical ability but also in confidence, stage presence, teamwork, leadership, and artistic maturity.

As students grow, so do our faculty. This continuous cycle of learning, mentorship, performance, and leadership development is fundamental to the Grace And Grooves philosophy, ensuring that every production contributes to the long-term growth of both artists and educators.

  1. Grace And Grooves Company’s Platform
  2. Hetal Joshi Nagaraj Platform, Grace And Grooves Corp promos and own such other.
  3. Rang Folk Dance Productions By Hetal Joshi Nagaraj
  4. Sarva Folk Dance Productions By Hetal Joshi Nagaraj
  5. Anantha Classical Dance Productions by Hetal Joshi Nagaraj.
  6. March Madness Recitals By Hetal Joshi Nagaraj
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  8. Model Productions By Hetal Joshi Nagaraj.
  9. Shoot Productions Exclusive for PR, as of July 31, 2026.
  10. List of In House Dance Productions with LIVE Audiences, Stage and Recitals of Hetal Joshi Nagaraj.

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— Do not copy any word, concept or any ideology, verbiage, picture , any clip or dance, or any wordings of Ms Hetal as it is full trademarked, some copyright received and some ip too, by country – 2012-current