Folk Dances of India

Richness of culture, traditions, respect, and above all majestic celebrations of each festivals…every other week there is a festival in some part of India…
A country that embraces diversity, colors, several religions and from all this was born…FOLK DANCES OF INDIA.

Salutations To Our People, Staff, Teams…We love you.

Asidegraceandgrooves group by hetal joshi 8 Comments

We thought of compiling the list of parents | students | interns | staff. They either come to us or they do it remote. ALL school/college/internships are paid to students, as applicable. Volunteer assignments are given as well. Meet our people / admin / coordinators / interns, as required, with full 99% involvement of Hetal Nagaraj :

  • These people are trained from all walks of life or we train them through our internship programs.
  • all the outsourced companies or freelancers that we have worked with or their executives are also mentioned in this staff list.
  • Generated opportunities / positions such as administrative, social-media intern, coordinator, IT-interns, website interns, OPT-candidates & fresh graduates in performing arts for full time, part time, w2, contract as well non-profit volunteer positions. All kinds of staff under Ms. Hetal : here & here. Hetal is Certified Trainer from IIM-AMA & more than 50 specialialities. (www.hetaln.com)
  • You don’t have to be without a job to be part of our teams 😉 Dance brings us together! This is how we love our crew so we love to talk about them! How do you all love your crew ?
  • All dates/times/months/years as per operating hours (does not include company-holidays/their requested holidays for any emergencies)
  • The Grace Effects Crew.
  • pseudonym – alias, nickname, pen name, nom de guerre., appellation, designation, soubriquet, sobriquet – a name that is used as pen name to create most often a a seperate brand or identity other than the individual’s other work areas.
  • All our staff sign their hours of volunteers, internships or their work hours specificially well ahead of time with exclusively duties or responsibilities to perform. some have their days and times scheduled as well so that ms. hetal can assign them their work. There is a reason why Ms. hetal always had an admin for all these scheduling and activities plus hetaln.com.
  • We encourage people to use a pseudonym to create their own independent brand in this field so that their other fields are undisturbed. Pseudonyms are nicknames or alias. All by full paperwork. Ms. Hetal M. Joshi goes by Hetal Nagaraj.

Dance | Performing Arts brought us together. Joining Date to Ending Dates as applicable.

  • Swati Burra/Swati S. : Coordinator & Admin : 5 years from 2011 to 2016.
    • Part time : 4 days a week
    • Training Ended-Moved to IT OWN consultancy – we are so happy for her.
    • Read about her.
  • Krishna veni putrevu 2012, odyssey – direct company vs company-collab – 6months. refused to go to north-dallas(after agreeing for it) so collab was dissolved. all 12 students officially joined folk classes under hetal nagaraj at south-irving location!
  • Shruti Sheladia : intern/holidays/as available. August 2012 to December 2013.
  • Mansi Chauhan : intern/holidays/as available.
  • Rinku Das : Nov 2018 to August 2019 : Direct Hire.
  • Digvijay Singh. aka Dg or Dj, Jasmindar & family : August 2018/2019.
    • Internship August 2018 to March 2019, as available.
    • Leadership Work March 2019.
    • 2022 : Promoted to Digital Asset Strategy Manager on Paid Role.
    • IT internships: https://www.hetaln.com/leadership
    • 2019-2024.
  • Navneet Jadeja & Family – Hetal’s dance-class friend in high school – often visits Dallas Texas and performs with Hetal’s group. Available for only Hetal’s group. Commercial artist in India – Mumbai & Delhi | Freelancer – Not associated with company directly. 
    • Freelancer.
  • Hetal Shah Patel, Patel & Family. : August 2016 | 2nd generation dances with us | Freelancer – Not associated with company directly. pseudonym 
    • Moved to hetaln.com for projects in IT and Dance.
  • Vanita Patel : August 2018 | Freelancer – Not associated with company directly.
  • Jinal Shah Mehta : August 2018 | 2nd generation dances with us | former partner owner of Reachh Mediaa. pseudonym 
    • Moved to hetaln.com
  • Kalpana Sai : March 2019 to till date | Freelancer – Not associated with company directly.
    • Moved to PR teams for big projects.
  • Shweta (Thakkar) Jagadish : August 2016 – March 20, 2025 | 2nd generation. parent used to dance with Ms. Hetal in Ahmedabad – Freelancer – Not associated with company directly. Often visits Dallas. Mainstream dancer
    • Moved to Reachh Mediaa Programs to complete trainings and other PR activities.
  • Deepthi Chandrasekaran : solo artist/teach as available/from Jan 2014 to 2022. More about Deepthi.
  • Sindhu J : March 2014 Student to performing team/Graduate.
    • Leadership Work August 2018
    • Successful delivery of all projects assigned.
    • Takes short term projects in dance.
  • Kavitha R : August 2018 – Freelance 2021 : Congratulations NEW Mommy – Break.
  • Tejaswini K : August 2018
    • Student to performing team/Graduate in January 2019 Anantha.
    • Family plans from Dec 2018.
  • Mandi Parikh : intern/holidays. : August 2018 to Nov 1, 2022.
    • Internship As available, short work only/staff until Nov 1, 2022.
    • Only available to dance for elites team until 2023-completing degree.
    • pseudonym 
  • Samar B & Family : January 2019 Onwards .
    • Internship January to August 2019. Leadership Work August 2019. Freelancer – Not associated with company directly.
    • Moved to by project from 2020 pandemic.
  • Bhuvaneshwari Murugan – 2016 to 2017 : online activities or hybrid as needed.
  • Prushti Dave :
    • Internship of IT(Information Technology), back office – IT / admin / coordinator : March 2019 – August 2019.
    • Leadership Work August 2019 onwards IT (Information Technology).
    • Graduated 2021 – works independently for Ms. Hetal on contract.
    • Successfully delivered 3 projects – development along with Ms. Hetal’s Teams + other 6 projects.
    • https://www.hetaln.com/leadership
    • Freelancer – Not associated with company directly.
    • Moved to hetaln.com
  • Anamika Jain : June 2019.
    • Performing team/freelance/under training
    • 2020 – left | too many travels and family commitments.
  • Ketki S : New : June 2019 to October 2019.
    • Reason for leaving : Unable to commit due to travels.
  • Nimisha Sri : intern/holidays. March 2019 – 2021 : launched in 1 show and few shoots but got job so unable to commit.
  • Devi S/Balasundaram : New – Sept 2019 to Oct 31 2019.
    • Reason for leaving : Started some business.
  • Dr. Puja Natesan : New. Student to performing team/Graduate.
    • Continued Education/Performing team. Come see her graduate at Anantha-2020.
    • Performs for online events as required or when she finds time.
  • Jeya Ravi : New
    • External-Continued Education/Performing team/under training – Subject to on-hold/Visa.
    • Takes occassional paid work.
    • Not associated with company directly and Elite teams or will represent company or hetal.
  • Yagna Pathak(Sept 2019 1st week – October 1st week) : Freelance projects/short terms/On-Hold. Background check – cancelled/on-hold. moved out of town/city/state thus unable to commit.
  • Rachita Umesh(Feb 2020) : Freelance short-term batches, on-board trial period & Background check – cancelled as the batches rolled off due to low enrollments. More about Ms. Rachita.
  • Santosh K (June 2016 to March 21 2021) :
    • August 2016 to June 2020 : Our pre-judgement team for competitions for Non-Classical Dances/Genre, as needed, by task & competition.
    • 2016-2017 : Judged for our “pricey” & “very strict” non-voting dance competition/non-classical genre as out of institute perspective and inputs esp for those kids where instructor’s whose kids were taking part.
    • June 2020 to March 22, 2021 : Elites (Ages 10+) Online Classes Only.
    • Status as of March 22, 2021 : Terminated | Date : March 22, 2021
      • Reason : Refused To Take Students Below 10 yrs inspite of Cleared Open Houses or Trial Classes (& took them anyways outside our institute in our business areas!)
      • Too Many Drop Outs Per Class For Teen Classes and the Elites from June 2020 to March 2021. Harmed the Integrity of Our National Teams.
      • Joins back in 2022 September for Entertainment Projects and other 3rd eye mentorship/judegement with Ms. Hetal only for commercial submissions instead of regular teaching.
      • Special gig projects & online or hybrid workshops.
  • Taylor Hayes (August 2020 to April 2021). More about Ms. Taylor.
    • Successfully delivered all modules/tasks/projects assigned.
  • Ashna Pethe : 2019 to 2022 : In-home graduate of Hetal Nagaraj. Full Internships & Own Team of Bollywood Beginners!
    • Internships ended satisfactorily & teams performed in 2021 August 8th Show- Congratulations!
    • Internships of private classes for indian folk and bollywood hiphop, as needed from 2018 onwards and for teen groups-lewisville, texas.
    • Moved to Elite Teams for Reachh Mediaa And Grace Effects.
    • Successfully delivered all modules/tasks/projects assigned.
  • Nirja Setty : 2019 to 2022 : In-home graduate of Hetal Nagaraj. Full Internships & Own Team of Folk & Bharatanatyam Beginners(with thalam & nattavagam)!
    • Internships ended satisfactorily & teams performed in 2021 August 8th Show- Congratulations!
    • Internships of private classes for indian folk and bollywood hiphop, as needed from 2019 onwards and for teen groups-lewisville, texas.
    • Moved to Elite Teams for Reachh Mediaa And Grace Effects.
    • IT Internships : Success : https://www.hetaln.com/leadership
    • Successfully delivered all modules/tasks/projects assigned.
  • Samarth Setty : 2019 to 2022 : In-home graduate of Hetal Nagaraj. Full Internships & Own Private Class Student for Hiphop, Bharatanatyam-online classes(with thalam & nattavagam), Bollywood-who needed help & Kalaripayattu.
    • Internships ended satisfactorily & teams performed in 2021 August 8th Show – Congratulations!
    • Internships of private classes for indian folk and bollywood hiphop, as needed from 2019 onwards and for teen groups-lewisville, texas.
    • Moved to Elite Teams for Reachh Mediaa And Grace Effects.
    • Successfully delivered all modules/tasks/projects assigned.
  • Anna Vacquez : Moved thus Laid off : Sept 2021 to June 15th 2022 : Not offered work anywhere in any locations or brands. Successful delivery of work assigned.
  • Mina : Moved & Laid off : Sept 2021 to June 15th 2022 : Not offered work anywhere in any locations or brands.
  • Marchawn Franklin : Laid Off : Sept 2021 to June 15th 2022 :
    • Fitness Program failed for reasons unknown (in-spite of giving full controls to run under g2)
    • Success of Hetal Joshi M and Her Leadership.
    • Admin work refined under Hetal Joshi M from booking meetings to calender for Ms. Hetal.
    • IT Internship : Success : https://www.hetaln.com/leadership
    • Never had to baby sit for any other tasks. ALL other tasks full-filled as expected. Successfully delivered all modules/tasks/projects assigned.
  • Jaimin Patel : 2022 June 30 : After hours online replies only as needed. Pseudoname.
  • Saumya Bhardwaj Kaur : Asst. Manager (leadership scholars program for aspiring university students, volunteer-scholar-internship path) for 5 Brands : 1. Mirchi Dance Academy, 2. Texas All Star Talents, 3. Reachh Mediaa Since 2013, 4. Grace Effects, 5. G2 Dance Factory. March 2022-Sept 30 2022. Fired-theft/criminal fraud reported to authorities. About Ms. Saumya and the issues.
  • Vinish Vasam : Sept 30, 2022 to Feb 22, 2023 : More about Vinish.
  • Preethi Cholleti – 2023-2024/current – Can be followed on this link. – Success as of March 2025.
    • Ms. Preeti – successfully launched in Aug 2023 with “on the spot” LIVE workshops, solo performances as well as group team performances as a paid gig and a introducing choreographer.
    • The Reachh Media work was paused due to system backlogs caused by criminal fraud and other deliberate disruptions, as previously mentioned.
    • Ms. Preethi’s classes were successful, achieving full enrollment solely from Ms. Hetal’s existing customer base in DFW (Mckinney areas), without advertisements. Advertisements targeted Allen; however, all inquiries came from McKinney. Ms. Hetal declined to supervise Ms. Preethi’s internship program due to system backlogs and other work commitments requiring her attention. As Ms. Hetal built the entire infrastructure, only she had the expertise to restore its functionality.
    • Consequently, Ms. Preethi’s batch became inoperative. She managed her own batch, including parent and student coordination. Phones and equipment were safely returned to Ms. Hetal, as she declined to travel to McKinney. Notably, the contract does not require Ms. Hetal to provide supervision.
    • Ms. Preethi remains part of group Elite’s submissions, but her association with the company is on hold until the first resumed submission. Per the contract, she is free to work elsewhere as long as she acts discreetly and does not harm company work or clients until March 2025.
    • Ms. Hetal is fully aware of Ms. Preethi’s dance activities, including her collaborations with a local social media artist and performances at parties. While, Ms. Hetal’s group usually performs at such events only when they manage the entire production, including music, dance, MCing, and videography/photography of the party and not just mere entertainment.
    • 2025 March – Ms. Preeti declined two $150 solo performance gigs in schools/ISD in March, totaling $300+ other benefits, within a 10–15 mile drivable distance, both of which a carpool could have been arranged. These opportunities were part of a seeding program and were discussed in detail prior to her decision. Despite previously stating her availability, she ultimately chose to pass on the opportunity. As a result, the contract or mutual understanding is terminated on these grounds, and the company holds no further responsibility. However, Preeti and her team are welcome to apply for vendor services if they wish to! As a friendly note, she will be part of performance teams as others are.
  • Avani Parihar – 2022-2023 – NJHS Scholar Program Paths – 51 hours of successful tasks assigned and completed along with in-person private package trainings. Moved to Prosper so terminated contract.
    • Student/Parents unable to drive that far and Ms. Hetal does not offer programs in Prosper. (Trainings in Bharatanatyam).
    • Certificate not required as student has Ms. Hetal’s signatures signed on all the NJHS hours of school itself. Videoclips coming soon.
  • Anula 2022-current – Ms. Anula is included in Elite’s submissions as a team and her associations with company is on standstill mode/paused/on hold until it resumes as a courtesy.
    • As per contract, she is always free to work for anybody as long as she maintains discreet actions and that she has as none of the company work or clients were either messed or harmed. Successfully delivered 1 batch during the fraud era of Grace and Grooves and 2 gigs. 1 sponsorship received from Ms. Hetal.
    • 2025 – March – Ms. Anula continues to have her associations with the company as in vendor services with her own groups that are external to Grace And Grooves or Ms. Hetal Nagaraj with and without Ms. Hetal’s direction, by genre and category. As a friendly note, she will be part of performance teams as others are.

We Are HIRING : Managers – Who knows legal formalities, on-site issues, studio operation, product management and should be aware of performing arts formalities, for all age groups. Degree not required but will be preferred. 972 979 2559.

Non Staff – External Dancers – By Auditions and from own couples or other workshops or private packages :

  • Krishna Pseudo name – aka Hi**** – Male – Dancer. from own couples package – No Show.
  • Nandika Jay – Female – Own Texas All Star Talent Student – Successfully Delivered.
  • Tani*** and sister (Flowermound)- Dancer Female. from own couples package – Successfully Delivered.

List of occasional dancers / dance  only (no teaching and no other work) :

— We are NOT hiring at this moment —

Our other teams / staff currently under us or our trainings of various fields :

It is really sad that actions of fraud have affected Ms. Preethi and Ms. Anula’s engagements and all the activities at such a massive scale. luckily contracts saved the company!

Our contracts are for our company’s safety and does not bind anybody unless you are a full timer or for special turnkey high budget sensitive projects and those are rare or most often not offered to newbies or first timers or those just stepping in because of experience level or until they master certain technicalities or have ability to take the full load like our Elites do. The contract has an auto expiry as well which allows artists to have complete freedom :). Ethically or morally speaking as well it stands true.

This post is an appreciation to these lovely people for spending their precious time for us. We have received lot of rumors about who works for us or Mrs. Hetal Nagaraj. Our people are very well set in their life with their full time job commitments either with us or with their own college work or other commitments. 

As a friendly note, all our Elites, Pre.Elites will be part of performance teams just as existing students or teams are.

Company Announcement : Feb 10, 2023 : People who have claimed to work with us but never worked with us or never provided us any services!

  • Points to ponder : You can bring business/money/opportunities to business OR
  • you can bring troubles to the business,
  • it is irrespective of what you bring to business!
  • It is still listed & we still have to be liable for each of your actions as our service provider or staff! At the end of the day, who is liable to reply for whatever you bring ?

We trust them because of their contributions to our company and it’s work. Some are fresh grads or housewives or our own fresh grads!

People who have claimed to work with us and never worked. List is here.

We offer part time, temporary work for seniors, stay at home moms, college students who are on legal status or on OPT. The work given to them depends on their specializations! All gadgets are given and all training is provided.

Ms. Hetal is a certified trainer from IIM – Ahmedabad – AMA corporate training program.

About her leadership certifications and achievements, other than performing arts – click here.

About Ms. Hetal – www.hetaln.com

These above candidates have not worked with any other dance company so far that we know of due to our thorough background check or if they have, they have disclosed it to us about their equations. We feel thankful and blessed.

Thank you for all you do and maintaining the transparency!

Certificates and Details.

We do not discriminate for gender/race/ethnicity/country/color and like to respect people who love to work. It is freewill life under Ms. Hetal. We do not ask them where they come from or where they go.

Updated on : May 26, 2019 | July 26, 2019 | Feb 26-27th 2019 | March 5, 2020 | June 30, 2020 | Feb 7, 11, 2022 | March 22, 2022 | June 23, 2022 | Sept 19, 2022 | Oct 4, 15, 2022 | Oct 17, 2022 | Nov 1, 16, 2022 | Jan 8, 2023 | Feb 20, 2023 | Feb 25, 2023 | March 15, 2023 | March 20, 2023 | April 20, 23 | July 8th, 2023 | Sept 4, 2023 | Sept 23, 2023 | Oct 22, 2023 | Nov 4, 2023 | Nov 10, 2023 | Nov 13, 2023 | Sept 23, 2024 | Sept 26, 2024 | Oct 1, 2024 | Oct 11, 2024 | Oct 17, 2024 | Oct 29, 2024 | March 20, 2025 | March 28, 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

Pinterest : https://www.pinterest.com/graceandgrooves

Best Number To Contact : 972 979 2559.

Copyright Reach Media for Hetal Nagaraj | Grace And Grooves | Grace Creations | 2012-2024. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Anantha Dance Production Series

Asidegraceandgrooves group by hetal joshi 6 Comments

Anantha Dance Production Series…………..

Anantha-1, a dance production series showcasing beauty, elegance, creativity, as well as infinite possibilities of Bharatnatyam, Indian Folk Dances, Rabindra Nruthya, Manipuri And Kathak. All of this without forsaking fundamentals.

ananthaflyer2019Idea of Anantha was implanted in 2018 January when we had faced some challenges that opened doors to other possibilities. 

First announcements were made to public in various medias from Nov 2, 2018 and onwards. Every year it just happens that as Grace And Grooves LLC plan their annual programs/recitals and they come out so beautiful that it ends up in dance productions with and without dance-musical dramas.

But the idea of dance recital was not enough for Bharatnatyam and Indian Folk Students after getting ready for 30-45 mins with all that make-up and costume. These students were to be taught the possibilities within the dance form and show it off separately. So, Anantha Production Series it was!

With straight background comes unlimited (Anantha) creativity. Thus, the name of “Anantha” was given to this dance production series with each dance showcasing unlimited possibilities in each dance forms. The name and concept is inspired from several dance production houses or dance institutes like that of her mom, own teachers, formal gurus, dance exponents such as Daksha V Joshi, Mrinalini Sarabhai, Daksha M Joshi, Tanjore Brothers Original Margam, Kalakshetra Foundation, Natyavihar Kalakendra. This intense training of over 34 years has given a shape to Hetal’s own dance creations within exclusive Indian Dance Forms such as Bharatanatyam and Indian Folk Dances. Some dances have also received exclusive copyright permissions to republish under the name of Hetal Nagaraj and some have received competition awards early this year and years before as well. 

Anantha opened its door with Anantha-1 in 2019 to begin with on Jan 27, 2019 at Plano Courtyard Theater, Plano, Texas, USA from 330 PM to 730 PM and was a houseful event. The event was an introduction event to her elite students such as Ashna Pethe and The Setty Siblings who are in advance trainings from years now and Rinku Das-a budding artist of Dallas-Forth, Texas. These students roughly danced for more than 2 hours. In Anantha, their intern choreographers, performing teams got every opportunity to be creative under the supervision, direction of Hetal Nagaraj and yet feel challenged without forsaking fundamentals of each dance form. All of it with full safety on practicing it in the right way. It is not about perfection, it is about doing it right.

Hetal Nagaraj is artistic director of Grace And Grooves LLC.  This is her 4th dance program in a row showcasing A Grade Indian Dance Productions with each dance as a reflection of her experiences, trainings and now the degrees. It has been peculiarity of Hetal that her dances include Nritta, Natya and Nruthya as its basic components with balance of Tandav and Lasyam. Each dance of her has a name to define with its subject in the dance along with dance themes that are full of life, happiness, thankfulness, blessings and above all beautiful costumes that she herself designs. But, Anantha-1 is Hetal Nagaraj’s VERY FIRST exclusive dance production for Indian Dance Forms and A Tribute to Rabindranath Tagore Famous Literature and Poems which as a matter of fact matched to our production name. All the students had so much fun learning and practicing for Anantha-1 during their regular class hours itself and no additional class is required. It is not like you pay, you get to be part of it, and be done with it. It is what they have learned, they’ll showcase. 

No outside students were allowed to perform or take trainings or as part of freelance dancers. Even the guest artists are/were students of Grace And Grooves LLC enrolled in their exclusive programs. Anantha Dance Production Series is about Grace And Grooves LLC students and their team only. Hetal Nagaraj selects them for this dance production and not everybody is able to make it to her list.

We will always had a special guests like this time we had Rinku Das who will do their own dances and stick to our themes or request with their team or solo but they are our special guests.

From students who wanted the thrill got it covered along with students who wanted the fun of natyam alone still staying in their respective dance forms.

Who said dance forms are boring..Not at Grace And Grooves!

Congratulations to Students Samarth Setty(Age 11) and Tejawini(Adults) for completing their entire Bharatanatyam Margam in Anantha-1 by performing under the strict supervision, instruction and guidance of Mrs. Hetal Nagaraj. This was made possible by dancing back to back for straight 3 hours from Pushpanjali, Allaripu, Jatiswaram, Thillana, Group-Shabdam, Creative Bharatanatyam, Copyright Bharatanatyam Dance Pieces, and Rabindra Nruthya as well. This also means, that it can be very much called their own arangetram, if they choose not to do it as solo arangetrams, separately. 

This is Hetal Nagaraj’s 2nd round of completion of full margam from start to finish by teaching it to various students. At Grace And Grooves, we aim to make sure you understand everything you see while we are just doing our job. 

Every beautiful thing under this sky has a name and so do the dances. 

From the thrill of nritta, beauty as in lasyam, fun of natyam, devotion as in bhakti and tapasya as in training, power as in shakti of tandav and possibilities as in Anantha- the infinite and we are still in same dance form when we do it right!

Anantha-1 Dance Production was made possible by Dhamaal Events in association with Grace Effects ( Gopal S and Dinesh Kumar for photography and videography services).

Big Shout Out To These Young Teenagers who had their paid student assignments at Anantha-1. Aditya Sangole as our Sound Technician and Emcee Yashika Nabar for our Dance Production Anantha-1.

Anantha-2 Dance Production is next scheduled in March 2020.

Dates & Times Will Be Announced Shortly.

Call NOW because time and tides wait for none…. 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 : 2012-2019.  

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

#hetaljoshim #graceandgrooves #ananthaseries

Why Grace And Grooves LLC discontinued Better Business Bureau of Dallas Fortworth.

Asidegraceandgrooves group by hetal joshi Leave a comment
Why Grace And Grooves LLC discontinued Better Business Bureau of Dallas Fortworth : 

Loved, loved and loved the services and perks that we received from BBB, A Better Business Bureau. Past 2 years has been an amazing ride with them with all the wonderful services, workshops and knowledge that they offer for small businesses like Grace And Grooves LLC.

It is when you suddenly realize that you are the only Indian Company offering exclusive indian folk dance classes apart from bollywood and not mix it up anywhere around, and that you are the only one with absolutely transparent background in all the programs that you offer from Bharatnatyam and Bollywood as well, it is a feature on our hats to be connected with BBB, A better Business Bureau.

The only problem that we faced was as we moved further in journey with them, we asked our parents and staff members to write something about how they feel about us on our little place that we earned it from Better Business Bureau as we were with A+ accreditation with them.

It seems like social media such as google, waze, facebook, twitter and instagram took over all of this when it came to customer feeling more at comfort talking about it. Our customers share such a fun and healthy relationship with us that it was better and easier for them to just write reviews over social medias instead of BBB boards.

From ethical grounds, quality of work, affordable services, beautiful costumes, non-allergic jewelry, arangetram preps, continued education in classical dances for various degrees and providing services as promised in the related programs, everything just ended up in social medias, recommendations, emails and text/sms messages.

And thus, we had to let go the better business bureau accreditation at-least until we get students/parents/customers who would not mind spending some time logging to these BBB boards to see our exclusive little place on their website and write something about us-good or bad!

That being said, we still enjoy attending their programs as we come across and available. We miss that tiny little icon of better business bureau and we hope that in near future, we can do something more with them and use them further for our services and products.

Grace And Grooves LLC shared A+ accreditation amongst the BBB businesses from 2016 to May 2018.

But that taught us to give you all what we do best :).

Copyright Reach Media for Grace And Grooves | Grace Creations | 2012-2018. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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.

Student of The Year….Updated Yearly!

Asidegraceandgrooves group by hetal joshi 4 Comments

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 :

SindhuStudentoftheYear2019-2020

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.

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.