School Performances

Secret To Winning Indian Dance Competitions For Dummies!!!

Linkgraceandgrooves group by hetal joshi 2 Comments

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

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

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

Our Fool Proof guidelines and tips for those interested.

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

To begin with, what are the types of dances ? 

Look !! Type of Competitions We Do !!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Techniques 50% & % is distributed

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

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

6. Costumes-rest % divided

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

7. Props & usages

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

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

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

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

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

Read about these budding stars : Here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Journey of Master In Fine Arts….Submitted By Hetal Nagaraj.

Asidegraceandgrooves group by hetal joshi Leave a comment

August 2016 : We were excited to hear the news that Hetal Nagaraj got accepted for Masters Program at TDES via Tamil University in August 2016. College:  Kalai Kaveri College of Fine Arts, Trichy, India.

A label & ID of OKC213160083A was given to her as Hetal Mahesh Joshi. She would mock to her students that she got her roll-number/student id too and that she is student too. Some of her students started calling her Hetal since then :).

University ID LOL

This makes us laugh for 2 reasons. First reason is, a very non-traditional picture-LOL. 2. Our owner was a student, not long ago 😛

Her inspiration of having a master degree in fine arts comes directly from one of her own cousin’s spouse/bhabhi (sister in law & aunt-2way relation:) who was enrolled in Masters Program @Darpana Academy, Ahmedabad India. Her Bhabhi had to leave her degree half-way for personal reasons and since then, Hetal Nagaraj had her mind set on doing Masters in either bharatnatyam, or theater with full dance work, at some point of time.

name checks..
course attachements
final year dissertations

Finding a university or dance program that not only offers robust MASTERS program of Bharatnatyam but also offers in-depth knowledge of Natya Shashtra, History, Styles, Theaters and Musicals with the flexibility of long distance program was a challenge. Hetal Nagaraj got accepted in 2 universities for this program with her dance experience, video clips of main margam, creative bharatnatyam dances, direct referral letters from her past dance teachers and her existing Master Degrees in other education stream that she already had. Rest all the universities had a requirement to do a full 2 year resident program and stay local for full two years with classes non-stop through the week and weekend! For those in India or want to pursue their degree in India for on-campus degrees within India, most welcome to contact Hetal Nagaraj:info@graceandgrooves.com, she’ll be very happy to guide you for all these courses.

Masters of Bharatnatyam

Master Of Fine Arts Year1

Biggest Challenge for Hetal Nagaraj was that she can’t just leave a young family and pursue dreams while running a full fledge A+ rating dance business with multiple locations, competitive performance schedules (almost every other month) in Bharatnatyam, Indian Folk Dances, Bollywood, Workshops, Elite performing team and all of that with her students taking part in competitions. Once you are married happily ever-after & have family, it is a package for whole family to achieve something as big as degree especially if parents are taking them; irrespective of whether or not you are in dance business! Whole family goes hand in hand to actually make it happen. Entire month of kids activities, planning meals for whole family, routines with home works, car-pooling, classes shuffled between choreographers as applicable in her absence, volunteer parents, website maintenance and it was STAAR Exam time for kids as well.

Bharatnatyam, Bharatanatyam

Break Time between classes…..all these are her classmates and they have dance businesses of their own in and out of India. Some in USA as well.

TDES via Tamil University gave her the options to not only be competitive at learning edge but flexibility to travel to Chennai for at-least one out of two degree years to give on-campus bharatnatyam theory exams, assignments, thesis/research,  presentations, do practical exams, live concert, musical and folk dance drama to be showcased before the teachers for grading.

All these dances were with full makeup and relevant costumes and costume change as required. Further, she decided to choose her degree location at Don Bosco College of Arts And Science, Chennai, India as her on-campus exam training (1 month required in person or average of 20-days) and examinations (practical and theory, in person). She decided Chennai as her location considering that Tamil History was one of the main subject and so she wanted to stay around Chennai to complete her research subject from locally available sources such as libraries, bookstores and visits to local dance schools. Don Bosco College of Arts And Science was her pick from the list due to her past upbringing of Convent Schools in Gandhinagar(India) and then affiliated programs at Ahmedabad(India) due to its discipline, environment, experiences and education standards.

Masters In Bharatnatyam

ConcertPaper, Folk Dance Drama

At first the initial plan was to go in second year. Plans changed when the syllabus arrived in Fedex from university with a whopping 22 dance items to take care of, showcase them, write 1 research paper each year, minimum of 2 assignments per year, minimum of 1 presentation per year, LIVE concert, nattuvangam, talam, ragam and Tamil History with all terms in Tamil. It was her husband Nagaraj who insisted that with this type of syllabus, she should take this as an opportunity and must go personally both the years, just like any student would do for each year in any other Masters Program.

Bharatnatyam, Master of Fine Arts

@Don Bosco School of Arts And Science canteen…break time between classes…fun food and lovely people.

The dance items and other master level dances required hours of practices and a mentor/guide to correct/remind as required because of complexity in choreography. They were in speed 2, 3 and 4 at a cutting edge but not a sweet cherry on the top, most in 3 and 4!

It isn’t for a regular bharatnatyam dancer who is barely trained and could still handle that type of work with that intense choreography.  Complexity with speed 3 and 4 was tough nut after a long time for Hetal Nagaraj.

She learned latest concepts in Bharatanatyam which she had never learned or were not taught in North India probably because back then these were taught @post-arangetram level only. Most of these concepts were added to standard margam by Kalakshetra Foundation founded by Rukmani Devi, Chennai and by renowned Bharatanatyam Artists in multiple styles.

Thus the degree curriculum included Main Margam Items, Non-Margam Items as well as Additional Creative Choreography from renowned artist of  Mysore Bani, Pandanallur Bani, Thanjavur Bani and Kalakshetra Bani margam as a compulsory LIVE concert-all of this with grading. While Vazhuvur Bani was one of the sub-topic for Mrs. Hetal Nagaraj as part of her research/dissertation. She took several skype/watsapp video classes from her guide Dr. Marie Stella who taught and corrected her for the possibilities in margam bharatnatyam dances with nattuvangam.

MargamPerformance w/Folk

Mrs.Hetal Joshi Nagaraj also took in-person classes with Dr. Marie Stella at Pondicherry where Dr. Marie Stella runs her own Dance Institute Kalai Aalayam Fine Arts Academy. Their group performed various items of margams, folk and solo bharatnatyam master works.

Her journey to full month stay at training and exam center for both the years were absolutely amazing! She stepped into this whole new world of Bharatnatyam with the infinite possibilities and complexities in southern India.

From what she thought would be questionable to do in various margam dances was NOW possible in unlimited combinations further. This experience opened a whole new creativity level in musicals, dance themes, concepts, usage of jatis and adavus in various permutations and combinations.

She implemented those concepts and was able to successfully use them not only in Bharatnatyam but in Indian Folk Dances and Bollywood/Tollywood/Indian Movie Dances of Grace And Grooves LLC giving exceptionally beautiful results with least amount of effort even for Bharatnatyam.

Masters in bharatnatyam

Thesis, Myselfie, concertpaper2

It took her 2 full years (2016 to 2018) for her to complete her degree in Masters In Fine Arts with whole family involved. This includes all our lovely students’ parents  of our private classes who walked with her in her journey very beautifully as she had to meet her deadlines of submissions or had her parallel skype classes.

With the type of knowledge that she gained in practical classes (skype/video watsapp/in person @Pondicherry) with her guide Dr. Marie Stella and during monthly in-house trainings, she thanks god that it did not happen in a click of button.

It would be too much for human brain to absorb all that, if it were to happen! She thanks her Tamil friends’ grand-parents (who were bharatnatyam dancers themselves) who helped her with very old tamil dialects for her theory papers that required compulsory usage of these words for grading. A lot of her regional tamil friends from chennai as well found it difficult to explain or understand these terms. All of that happened for Hetal Nagaraj for both the years back to back, one year at a time with proper planning.

Don’t even wish for a degree in 1 day with a click of a button. It is not going to help you! It is the training from all the right people that will never fail you and that you will not experiment on students because you have studied each scenario with pros and cons & thus it is available for you to use in your own creative way, very very safely!

Just that common sense is something that no university will ever teach you and to master that you will have to let go your ego ;). This is irrespective of your age!

Planning

80 Seperate School Lunches(2 kids), 40 dinners combined for 4 people, 40 lunches for huby/mil(combined 2 ppl), 25 breakfast(2 ppl), and extra 10 dishes here and there. There are similar bento boxes behind the line you see in the picture. 2017 too, similar preps and this year pretty much same plan but with MIL present, it was easier.

We strongly recommend all bharatnatyam dancers who are interested to go for this course provided you have the following :

  1. Zeal, patience, energy, money (investment in INR), and proper planning to do so.
  2. You should have done bharatnatyam up-to varnam level and above at some point in your life to be able to handle this type of work. Arangetram is irrelevant.
    • Style of bharatnatyam will not matter for this particular degree because their program itself includes multiple styles.
    • You must submit videos of any of these with other degrees that you have to become eligible for this program.
    • Private classes with your guide will be required to get your smoothly through this journey with deadlines, protocols to be followed and your guide will help you with the following as well :
      • if you have learned your bharatnatyam in non-traditional or conventional ways or you had several breaks through out your learning, or nattavangams, ragam, talam were not part of your training then you will have to educate yourself with these.
      • Nattuvangam, Recitation of Jatis and Adavus are graded.
      • In-person practicals, concerts participation is required. Must be ready to showcase all of above or as asked with full costume, makeup, hair-do; irrespective of any help available. Makeup artist may/may not be available.
  3. Expect morning 9am to 5pm dance routines and as you get closer to exams it will be 9am to 11pm practice hours. If you have any physical disability, come with doctor’s note or do not apply!
  4. List/selections of locations, accommodation to be take care by you while these will be required during your on campus trainings and all exams.
    • Paid meals 3 times a day at the campus canteen and everything is available around the area.
  5. Most important-you should be ready to go for a month (average of 20 days approx and add 2 more days to get the feel of area and shopping for your concert). Attendance is strictly required during all the days for the on-campus classes and exams. Best if you go both years. It will be worth a trip….
  6. Cons : Make sure you stay at the top of conversation with these people and get it all in writing, we had students who were marked absent even when they were present, we had students whose names and marks were printed wrong and lot of such issues.. Hetal managed to get out clean because she is from security background and so she has habit of keeping track of everything. Our owner is on the top of everything and that is how she is able to make a positive and inspiring difference in her students’ life.

Specifics are mentioned deliberately in detail as an effort to provide all the information that you may need as a student to apply! This blog post details were taken from articles submitted by Hetal Nagaraj to company.

Hetal Nagaraj says I did it and she will love to guide you to do it too! 

New Images Added : July 18, 2020.

Phone : 972 979 2559

Exclusive Copyrights by Reach Media for Hetal Joshi | Grace & Grooves | Grace Creations | Grace And Grooves 2012-2020.  This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. 

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

 

 

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

Asidegraceandgrooves group by hetal joshi Leave a comment

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 –

Internal Company – Leadership Awards

2025 – 2026 – Jr. Digivijay – 21+ Student of Year – Arlington-Texas, New York – New Jersey, California. Endorsed.

2024 – 2025 – Jinal Shah’s Family Member – Student of the Year – New York – DFW. Endorsed.

2023 – 2024 – Jinal Shah – 21+ Student of the Year – USA, UK. Endorsed.

2022 – 2023 – Name To be received from teams. Records under review.

2021 – 2022 – Aayan Ale – currently under endorsement. Student graduated in the same year of 2022 during the stalled systems mess in g2.

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.

Aanya's Pic.PNG

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 : 
  • 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.

12645017_988746897867308_7833473169958420688_n

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.

IMG_2076

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-current. 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.