When I was young I never thought of becoming a choreographer because I used to think that was a difficult task and I often tell my mom that I am a good performer but I am not that much talented in choreographing because whenever you are performing a dance you must make sure that it looks elegant.
1. Tell us about your background and journey.
I am Priyanka. I have been dancing for around 8 years. I'm a trained classical dancer. I learnt it when I was doing my 6th grade. After that each and every dance step that I made was purely adapted by myself by watching videos and observing people. There is no any particular style that I have learnt. Every thing is self taught except me being a classical dancer.
My journey has been quite interesting. When I steeped into college I used to do stage shows in a studio and I was there in that studio for around 4 to 5 years. That is the place where I learnt and upskilled me a lot from a particular Choreographer named Raju.
He basically works on films and he is one of the assistant of Raju Sundaram master. He used to choreograph for many award shows and that's how I learnt a lot from him. I have been like that and I have travelled through many parts of the country and performed with many celebrities. One among them was Prabhu Deva Sir with whom I performed in Dubai.
So, my journey has been quite interesting and in the year 2019 I started a you tube channel called Bollymadras with one of my co-partner Sindhuja. That's how I got quite a wide range of popularity. Till now I keep practicing regularly in order to make myself keep engaged.
2. When did you realize your passion for dancing?
I actually didn't realized it since I was young I always used to dance and I think dance was just inside my blood. Later when I was in 6th standard my father wanted me to learn dance professionally and I learnt Bharatanatyam but I was in a state of quitting because I couldn't adapt the steps easily.
So, I left and joined again when I was doing my eighth grade and continued my journey there for two years. I quitted again when I was in 10th because I was studying in a CBSE school and I had exams every month so I wasn't able to concentrate on it.
After my schooling I thought of resuming it again and I joined in the college dance team and that's how I realized my passion and I was determined that I wanted to upgrade myself as a professional dancer.
Finally I can conclude that college is the place where I realized my dream but during my schooling also I was into dance but I didn't have a thought of taking it up professionally.
3. Is format training required or can one train themselves purely on the basis of their talent?
There are people who learn many dance forms may it be classical, western or anything. Everything has a foundation but there are few styles which doesn't have a foundation. Let's say the style 'Kuthu' which is tamil folk dance and I don't think that it has any foundation.
It basically lies on our talent. Either You can get trained to become a choreographer or you can train by yourself and become a choreographer. It's purely up to your creativity, dedication and your style.
4. Can you share us some insights about you being a choreographer?
When I was young I never thought of becoming a choreographer because I used to think that was a difficult task and I often tell my mom that I am a good performer but I am not that much talented in choreographing because whenever you are performing a dance you must make sure that it looks elegant.
Later on after my college I used to choreograph for sangeeth ceremonies. The thing is I knew that I already had that thing inside me but it took a lot of time for me to realize that I can become a choreographer. So, there is no such thing that you should actually get trained to become a choreographer.
Anybody can become a choreographer but it all lies upon ones creativity. It is also not necessary that every choreographer should be an actual pro dancer to choreograph. There are so many people in the film industries who aren't actually skilled but their way of choreographing are quite interesting and innovative.
So, it is not that you have to be a proper dancer to be a choreographer. For me I actually started improvising myself after starting Bolly madras by getting inspiration from others. I used to take few steps from them but I improvise it in my own way.
So, this is how it is, I actually didn't thought of becoming a choreographer but I am very much happy that many like my choreography but I would say that I am always a learner and I will be a learner till the end of my life.
5. What are the challenges you faced and how did you overcome it?
I faced many challenges. My father actually didn't want me to pursue dance as for him only classical is the dance form and I used to lie when I was in college and after that I convinced him to take this as my profession to which he agreed after a particular point of time.
Other than that I had some personal problems with relationships. There are times where I won many prizes in all intercollege dance competitions wherein I get to hear many boys just say that the award given to me wasn't fair because my way of style and theirs are totally different.
They used to do perform styles technically like hip hop which is very difficult to perform. It is not that I don't respect their styles but its all based on audience perspective because most of the people prefer commercials. But I would tell that they are doing a really good job as those styles are quite not easy to grasp.
I too want to learn that and I always prefer to be a learner and I don't mind telling that I am not a pro dancer. I am just trained as a classical dancer and I know something about the other dance forms. I badly want to learn Belly dancing and Kathak which are my favorites and I always wanted to learn these.
So, I have faced a lot and still facing. There are people who try to put you down but at the end of the day it is you who need to come out of it and make yourself become a successful one.
6. Tell us more about 'Bolly madras'
'Bollymadras' is a dance you tube channel which has been a year old. We have already touched 90 k subscribes and we believe that we will touch 100k soon by this month. It is owned by me and Sindhuja Hari. I met Sindhuja Hari through one of our mutual friends where we used to do a dance cover. She was working in a 9 to 5 job and later on she told me that she was going to start a studio and I was really happy with that.
I always had a dream of starting a you tube channel. I could have started by myself but I wished to have a co-partner with me because it would be more nice while dancing as a pair than performing alone. We both started together and she named it as Bolly madras.
Our first cover was 'Saaki Saaki' and initially we got around 3 to 4k views twice a month. Our break through was ' Verithanam' which really went viral and many channels like Galatta tamil started collaborating with us.The song 'Buttabomma' has the largest views for around 2 million followed by 'Naakumukka'.
I always used to think that we shouldn't just practice and dance rather go deep into it by making our appearance more attractive. We had many make up artists collaborating with us and till now it has been very great and I thank all the people for their support which brought us to this state and I wish that this continues to be the same.
Priyanka Nair
Instagram id - @aslanarjun
YouTube Channel - Bolly Madras
Interviewed by - Ananie Borgia
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