Ghummar/Ghoomar/Ghumar

Famous Folk Dance Of India

Why Compete!!! Where does it get you ?

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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. 

 

Recital 2018 – A Fusion Life of American Born Cultured Indian/Desi (ABCD)

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fusionlife2018Recital 2018 concept and theme was decided in 2016 by Hetal Nagaraj.

The students in beginning of 2017 were actually taught dances like-wise throughout the year covering just the basics staying in their own category.

The whole idea got the shape in October 2017 when a rough playlist was made. A couple of these dances were also showcased in some of local talent competitions (September-October 2017), Diwali Mela(s)-(November 2017) at various places and other local festival stages. And a few of these had already won the awards too such as Pushpanjali, Madhurashtakam (Practice video-Selected for finals).

With all the influences of Non.Indian Culture in our Indian Dances, Dramas and thus our lives, we thought of showing how a life of our next generations that are brought up here. As it says, A=American, B=Born, C=Confused, D=Desis. But for our students of Grace And Grooves, C stands for CULTURED DESI, CLEAR FUNDAMENTALS, AND CRYSTAL CUT Diamond like TALENTS. Talents that can’t be beaten, Talents that can’t be judged with shallow mark-ups or untrained eyes and Talents that can’t be shadowed. 

Grace And Grooves is an Indian Dance School where students know difference between Bollywood And Indian Folk Dances, Bollywood And Bharatnatyam, Bharatnatyam and Indian Folk, Semi-Classical And Bharatnatyam too! 
So the recital program 2018 of Grace And Grooves had Pure Bharatnatyam that showcased the richness of Indian Classical Dances to Fun Indian Folk, Fusion Folk, Movie Types Semi-Classical Dances infused with & without Desi-HipHop to real semi-classical dances, Bollywood Modern-Contemporary Desi-HipHop Fusions and Folk And the dance dramas inspired from movies such as Bahubali, Veer Zaara & many more. 

Grace And Grooves successfully completed NAVARASA as per Natya Shashtra Guidelines in Bharatnatyam, Indian Folk Dances And Bollywood/Movie Dances in 2017-2018 year. All the dances are directed or choreographed exclusively by Hetal Nagaraj unless otherwise mentioned. Our Company Choreographers contributed with dances on Ramta Jogi by Mansi Chauhan and Ganesh Kavtuvam by Buvuneshwari Murugan.

We cannot forget Indian Movies that teaches us to dream big and live-happily ever after within our cultural boundaries—no matter where we go. Thus, our Special Feature of the evening & 90s Tribute was An Exclusive Tribute to Shahrukh Khan of Bollywood – SRK as we know him. It showcased non-stop 11 mins of SRK’s movie dances by around 20+ students and special appearances from Raghu K and Pavithra K. Videos will be shortly available.

Very first time in our recital, we had Guest Choreographers with Rang Barse-Holi Remix Tribute by Ritu Kharbanda and Bollywood Garba on Nagada Sang Dhol Baaje By Mishu Shashtri. Our Guest-Artist this time was a young artist – Arjun Iyer, Age 11 who played various notes starting from National Anthem of USA with music to notable Tamil Songs on Keyboard-Piano and Clarinet. Guest choreographer Ritu Kharbanda contributed with song of Om Shanti Om to our SRK non.stop dance extravaganza as her contribution to salute our King Khan with Harshita and Gargi.

All students, choreographers were acknowledged with participating medals and certificates during the show and later-during the classes. Below are the all the pictures, Enjoy And Don’t forget to sign up for our lessons : www.graceandgrooves.com

Phone : 972 979 2559

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

Twitter : https://twitter.com/GraceAndGrooves

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Bharatnatyam Pushpanjali. Concept, Choreography, Choreographer, Direction by Hetal Nagaraj. University Level Work.IMG_5966

Golden Era of Movies in various Languages : 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s From Semi-Classical Mujras To Desi Hip Hop Infused with various Indian Folk Dances.Concept,Choreography, Choreographer, Direction by Hetal Nagaraj.

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Recital 2018 Dance Dramas In Pure Bharatnatyam, Semi-Classical, Indian Folk And Bollywood/Movie Dances In Various Languages. Concept,Choreography, Choreographer, Direction by Hetal Nagaraj.

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Our tribute to Gujarati Sahitya @Recital 2018. Abhinaya covering Navarasa in Pure Bharatnatyam-Gujarati Dance Drama with Gujarati Classical Music. Concept, Choreography, Choreographer, Direction by Hetal Nagaraj.

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Recital 2018 Dances In Pure Bharatnatyam, Semi-Classical, Indian Folk And Bollywood/Movie Dances In Various Languages. Concept,Choreography, Choreographer, Direction by Hetal Nagaraj.

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Recital 2018 Dance Dramas In Pure Bharatnatyam, Semi-Classical, Indian Folk And Bollywood/Movie Dances In Various Languages. Concept,Choreography, Choreographer, Direction by Hetal Nagaraj.

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Golden Era of Movies in various Languages : 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s From Semi-Classical Mujras To Desi Hip Hop Infused with various Indian Folk Dances. Concept,Choreography, Choreographer, Direction by Hetal Nagaraj.

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We did Bahubali 1 and won several competitions in Solos & Groups. How can we not do Bahubali 2. Concept,Choreography, Choreographer, Direction by Hetal Nagaraj.

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A Special Tribute of 90s & Later was for our SRK – Shah rukh Khan. A 11 Minute Non.Stop Dancing By Around 20 Dancers featuring his movie dances with our choreography n his famous dance moves. Choreography, Choreographer Hetal Nagaraj. Concept & Direction by Hetal Nagaraj.

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A Special Tribute of 90s & Later was for our SRK – ShahRukh Khan. A 11 Minute Non.Stop Dancing By Around 20 Dancers featuring his movie dances with our choreography n his famous dance moves. Choreography, Choreographer Hetal Nagaraj. Concept & Direction by Hetal Nagaraj.

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A Special Tribute of 90s & Later was for our SRK – Shahrukh Khan. A 11 Minute Non.Stop Dancing By Around 20 Dancers featuring his movie dances with our choreography n his famous dance moves. Choreography, Choreographer Hetal Nagaraj. Om Shanti Om Title Song By Ritu Kharbanda. Concept & Direction by Hetal Nagaraj.

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Our Company Choreographers for Ganesh Kavtuvam By Bhuvaneshwari Murugan and Ramta Jogi By Mansi.

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Special Thanks :

  • Mishu Shastri-Dance, Ritu Kharbanda-Dance for their wonderful participation in Recital 2018, A Fusion Life of ABCD.
  • Arjun Iyer for Instruments.(Pic Added Jan-2,2020)
  • Kedar Golvelkar For Music on Guitar (Ankhon Mein Teri),
  • Bhagwat Pandya For Sound Technician Services.
Call NOW : 972 979 2559.

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 may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.  

Post Updated : March 15 2018, Jan 2 2020.

 

 

 

 

Student of The Year….Updated Yearly!

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Grace And Grooves Group – Student Of The Year – Leadership Awards

This section of Blog is exclusively dedicated to all our students’ achievements with Grace And Grooves LLC. These are the students who take every opportunity to excel not only as part of team work but also as part of their individual growth and performances in their respective dance forms or types (if Bollywood-Movie Dances!). These students take regular classes just like all the other students but the only thing they do differently is identify the opportunities given to them by their teachers and make the best use of it. We also like to call them swans.

These students of Grace And Grooves are the examples of achieving balance in life, elegance, and beautiful results that you get with proper training at the right time from all the right people! There is no short-cuts to learning any dance forms/types. If you want to do it then you will do it, no matter what life throws at you! Times when they had lemons around, these students have made a lemonade and nailed it! All pictures below are subject to change if parents send us more pictures 🙂 But until then, enjoy what is posted.

It is not only the straight background that works with everything but also right time, right people, balance & right attitude that builds something that stays FOREVER…You do not have to come from generations of family to do it right.

2020 – 2021 : Aahana : 

  • whatsapp-image-2021-08-31-at-11.03.24-am-3Aahana is a student of Hetal Nagaraj Dance, Hetal Nagaraj from 2012 (she was almost 5 years old) for half dozen Indian Folk dances(100+ hours) & Bollywood(250+hr) & has taken several courses with Grace And Grooves Group of Dance Companies (350 +) hours with us in general. Aahana is a vivacious 11 year old from Frisco Texas. She’s a 6th grader in Frisco, Texas, USA. She is currently taking advance training of Kalaripayattu & Contemporary (surpassed 30+ hr NEW each) with Ms.Hetal(in-person) & Manoj Sir(online). She has won several city & state level non-voting competitions under Hetal Nagaraj nominating her for several state level participations and competitions. ALL of which were non-voting. Her other dance accomplishments include, city and state level bollywood, indian folk and semi-classical winning streaks with Hetal Nagaraj as part of company performances and submissions. Nominated several times for state level programs as well to come and perform but due to exam times, she could not go.
  • Aahana’s other accomplishments include several sports, educational, arts/drawing awards by grade and she won a honorary mention for her reflections art work at Ani Hols elementary school. Current Student at School of rock training in Vocals ( rock music ) Age 6 to 10. Her Facebook page was established in 2020 under the leadership & training of Hetal Nagaraj with Reachh Mediaa Reachh Since 2013.
  • Under Hetal Nagaraj, she also earned her first international award from Mumbai, India. See here.
  • She receives 300$ worth of prizes from our friends and participating companies. Yet another example set here!

2019-2020 : Sindhu Jampala :

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Sindhu Jampala comes with package, 2019-2020! Congratulations!!!

  • Ms. Sindhu started her trainings in August 2014 for recreational Bollywood classes in Irving, Texas under Hetal Nagaraj when she was mother of 1. Later, she was trained with Ms. Deepthi & Hetal together.
  • She started her journey with her full time IT job, at times on-call and all the other family commitments. Performing and then graduating after being “a mother of 2” NOW. She has participated in lot of our recitals, dance productions and has been part of our growing family! From Sarvaa 2019, she has been contributing towards company shows by being choreographer for her own kids team with full responsibility from start to finish under the leadership of Hetal Nagaraj.
  • Lot of her dances were selected for form/Bharatanatyam/folk category even when submitted in open category only because we had used Bollywood song but organizers moved us!! While others were pure bollyhop and fun dances that she continues to do today with her teams. With their Irving & Carrollton teams, they made it to several local non-voting competitions for Bollywood categories & a few reality dance competitions across cities for bollywood traditional to bollyhop.
  • Read about her trainings at Grace And Grooves.
  • She receives gift hampers and services worth of 250$ from our friends and participating companies. Sindhu has set an example for lot of our full time working young mommies with extended families that there will be a year that’s going to be mine from start to finish :). She finally took it in 2019-2020 with family. #respect.

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2018-2019 : Aanya Kocchar :

  • Ms. Aanya Kocchar joined Grace And Grooves as an exclusive Bharatnatyam Student in 2015 when we started teaching structured Bharatnatyam Program at Lewisville, Texas under the guru-shishya parampara with Mrs. Hetal Nagaraj exclusively.
  • When it comes to balancing life with education, performing arts and all the other activities that kids have to take up today just to achieve normal expectancy as per school curriculum, it has never been easy! 
  • As per our Student of the year criteria, she has been an excellent role model to all our younger Bharatanatyam dancers who will look upon her an example going forward. Never Give Up because learning an art-form is never easy and there are NO SHORT-CUTS.
  • Aanya has performed with Grace And Grooves in several in-house dance productions with her exclusive Bharatnatyam Dances without forsaking fundamentals of her own art-form Bharatanatyam for all our recitals, community events as well as exclusively Hetal Nagaraj’s dance productions.
  • Her notable dances are Bharatnatyam Nruthyam-Gujarati Sahitya Dance Duet (Literature) and Hetal Nagaraj’s Master Degree university level work of exclusive Bharatnatyam-Pushpanjali, and Allaripu(main margam items). She continues to learn her next level in Bharatnatyam at Lewisville, Texas with Mrs. Hetal Nagaraj and is now a 5th Grader. We are so proud of you!
  • Nominated twice for International Gujarati Culture Awards as well as community awards and earned her place in gifted folk programs at Nruthyakala Folk Dance Academy.
  • She receives $200 worth of services from our partners and friend-businesses to excel in her interest in the journey of Bharatanatyam. One Step At A Time, Nice And Easy. Updated : Jan 11, 2019.
  • Aanya was student from March 2015 to November 1, 2019.
    • During Jatiswaram Level from Mid-August 2019 onwards, she started coming once a month only which was slowing down entire batch. Student was unable to attend minimum 4 classes a month/do any other make-up classes/take any other private classes to catch up to her class-mates or atleast take other parallel classes;all of which was given well-ahead of time as per convinience of all parents. Parents were contacted regularly every month about the absences via emails/phones-sms and calls. Parents were regularly requested to move to slower pace class or lower level class (just to keep it going until she is ready for her batch) which did not happen either.
    • Later, in November 1, 2019 when their payment plan ended and it was time to renew, parents were requested to renew their payment plan only when student is able to attend classes regularly or choose any of options above or do private classes for good.  This schedule expectation of regularly attending the class for this accelerated-level is excluding holiday schedules or extra practice schedules or makeup class schedules. All of these instructions are given well-ahead of time at the beginning of year itself. It is our policy from past 15 years!
    • Updated : December 26, 2020. Aanya was in accelerated class of year-round lessons with full holiday schedule and dates provided well ahead of time as per full time – working – parents – holiday schedule. We are year round dance school.

IMG_58232017-2018 : Samarth Setty 

  • His first dance was a valentine dance with girl at the age of 3.5 where he showed his ability to act, dance & make people laugh/smile by showing his natural dance skills, dance etiquettes that were taught to him by his Montessori teachers.
  • Stage presence was natural to him just like his sister.
  • Our little macho man had his struggles of taking breaks in learning dance because of his birth weight, body type but he never gave up. 
  • From a husky body type to making his body a lean-mean fat-burning machine, he has amazed us of what he could do with proper training, discipline and diet plans that his mom prepares for him.
  • His official journey of dance training in Indian Folk Dances started at the age of 6, Bharatnatyam at the age of 7, Bollywood at the age of 7 and then he never looked back! Prior to these years, he would appear on stage as side/back stage-dancer.
  • Amongst all our girls, at times he is the only Krishna, Shiva, captain, our Rahul who comes to save the day for lot of our group dances even when he is not dancing for full song. At times he is not instructed of what he needs to do except for dance steps if they were to match with group..it comes out naturally to him, without training and knowledge of dance forms/styles.(Environment)
  • From group dance dramas to Solo(s) in Bharatnatyam, Indian Folk Dances and Bollywood/Movie Dances, he has done it all. He has successfully performed, competed and won competitions as solo artist from 2nd place to 3rd place with only 1 hour a week of dance lessons.
  • His training teachers are : Buvaneshwari Murugan(Jatiswaram, Ganesh Kavtuvam) & Hetal Nagaraj (Pushpanjali, Allaripu, Jatiswaram, Thillana, Shabhdam, Bho-Shamboo and several dance dramas from Gujarati Literature to Telugu Literature) for Bharatanatyam, Indian Folk Dances-Hetal Nagaraj, Bollywood-Hetal Nagaraj and Mansi Chauhan.
  • His workshops include : Intermediate-Advance Workshop with Shakti Mohan-2015.
  • He is a perfect example of perseverance, inherited natural talent, stage presence and a best example for kids who feel like giving up, only because of body-type.
  • He receives photo-shoots worth $250, competition discounts and several other perks from our participating businesses.
  • His Facebook page was established in 2019 under the leadership & training of Hetal Nagaraj with Reachh Mediaa Reachh Since 2013. Read More About Samarth Setty.
  • Updated-Feb 13-2018, Sept 1-2021.

Ashna Pethe – 2016-2017

  • From recreational dancer(Age-10) to now our elite team dancer and this years’ 1st

    Ashna Pethe Student of the Year

    Congratulations! Student of The Year 2016!!

    prize winner in Non-Classical-Category(Bollywood). Lewisville-Texas. Now 13.

  • Locations of Workshops, Performances & Competitions : Southlake-Texas, Irving-Texas, Dallas-Texas, Lewisville-Texas, Frisco-Texas, Plano-Texas, Carrollton-Texas.
  • Ashna won A $200 gift hamper that includes a photo-shoot and a FREE professional profiling and several free perks from Grace And Grooves LLC.
  • A perfect example of no short-cuts to success and yet balancing it beautifully with unbeatable graceful performances. 
  • She has bagged 1st place in non-classical category and has cleared several competitions in state of Texas. (Update-September 29, 2017).
  • Ashna dances 1-2 hours a week Bollywood at Elite Level w/Elite Team for Grace And Grooves, paid and unpaid performances.
  • She has taken advance workshops with Hetal Nagaraj, Mansi Chauhan And Shakti Mohan for Indian Folk Dances, Professional Bharatnatyam, Professional Kathak and Contemporary. 
  • Her Facebook page was established in 2019 under the leadership & training of Hetal Nagaraj with Reachh Mediaa Reachh Since 2013. Coming Soon About Ashna Pethe.
  • Updated Sept 1-2021.

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Congratulations! Student of the year 2015!!

Diya Kadiyala, 2015-2016.

  • First Indian Folk Dance Solo Artist under the age of 5 (under official company name Grace And Grooves other than Nirja Setty) successfully performed 3.2 minute of Indian Folk Dance. Twice!!
  • Audience : 100 People. Selected/Cleared Auditions for 2 different competitions in 2015. Irving-Texas. Age 4.5. Now 6.
  • Locations of Performances : Irving-Texas, Dallas-Texas, Frisco-Texas.
  • You are a perfect example of following directions just as taught at such a young age that too in Indian Folk Dances.
  • Diya took Free private classes(2) worth $50 during the regular classes. A Free costume rental on our elite line of costumes and a waive off on registration fees for second year. ($30).

Student of the Year 2015

Congratulations!! Student of the year 2014

 Nirja Setty, 2014-2015.

  • Winner of 6 (now 6) technique focused Indian Dance Competitions in Indian Folk Dances, Fusion and Bharatnatyam(2016). 
  • Nirja won Free Costumes and Jewelry from one of our friend-sponsors worth $100. Free Tickets to concert-$30.
  • A girl known to challenge judges’ knowledge in competitions as compared to her age group. Irving, Lewisville-Texas. Age 9. NOW 11. 
  • You are a perfect example of perfect expressions/looks in Indian Performing arts-anytime a picture is taken and yet it just as graceful and beautiful. All of this with a beautiful balance in life!
  • Her average competition prize money amounted to $200-$300 by 2015 in various school competitions for Bharatnatyam and Indian Folk Dances. Her audience is not less than 1000 people for the dances she has performed.
  • Nirja regularly dances 1-hour a week in : Bharatnatyam(in 2 styles), Bollywood and Indian Folk Dances with Hetal Nagaraj and Alpana Jacob (outside Grace And Grooves LLC).
  • Locations of Workshops, Performances & Competitions : Southlake-Texas, Irving-Texas, Dallas-Texas, Lewisville-Texas, Frisco-Texas, Plano-Texas, Carrollton-Texas, Allen-Texas, Coppell-Texas, Grapevine-Texas, Flowermound-Texas, Arlington-Texas.
  • She has taken advance workshops with Mansi Chauhan, Hetal Nagaraj and Shakti Mohan for Professional Kathak and Contemporary. She has also danced National Level Competition Fogana 2013 w/Indu Mangrola-Sursangam Dance Company. 
  • Her Facebook page was established in 2019 under the leadership & training of Hetal Nagaraj with Reachh Mediaa Reachh Since 2013. Read More About Nirja Setty.
  • Updated-Sept 1-2021.

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Congratulations!! Student of the year 2013!!

Srinija Burra, 2013-2014 :

  • Outstanding Recreational Indian Folk Dance Artist – (Solo) Recreational Folk Program.
  • Audiences from 100 to 500 People. Irving-Texas. Age 6. NOW 11.
  • Srinija won Free Customized Costumes from our elite line of costumes and Free Tickets to performances worth $75.
  • Won competitions with Grace And Grooves LLC as in group for Indian Folk Dances held Dallas-Texas at Coppell-Texas, Plano-Texas, Allen-Texas.
  • Locations of Performances & Competitions : Southlake-Texas, Irving-Texas, Dallas-Texas, Lewisville-Texas, Frisco-Texas, Plano-Texas, Carrollton-Texas, Allen-Texas, Coppell-Texas, Grapevine-Texas, Flowermound-Texas, Arlington-Texas.
  • Selected in several auditions and competitions for Solos. Selected by several media and top-notch family/event/corporate-dance and professional photographers for individual profiling/close-ups during our community performances without our telling them or informing them. She was also part of Fusion team being an avid gymnasts student. Click here : 
  • You are a perfect example of perfect expressions/looks anytime a picture is taken and yet it just as graceful and beautiful.

Congratulations to ALL our students of the year! 

Thank you for working hard with us…

This post will be updated once a year. Our academic year goes from August To May.

Post Updated History : This Post was First Published on this Blog on September 25, 2017.

Pictures posted above are either past or present students of Grace and Grooves & their pictures are shared based on their exclusive photo sharing rights and approved by parents when shared/transferred to Grace And Grooves for the purpose of Grace and Grooves ONLY.  
Copyright Reach Media for Grace And Grooves | Grace Creations | 2012-2021. This material cannot be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Competitions Counted On Our Lists :

Imagegraceandgrooves group by hetal joshi Leave a comment

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.

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