The Leading Ladies

When we’re looking to relax and enjoy ourselves, music, song, and dance are often what immediately come to mind. Weddings are a time for joy and happiness. Music, song and dance have a significant role to play in various ceremonies of an Indian wedding. The “Ladies Sangeet” is only about dance and entertainment.

Indian weddings are replete with traditional songs and dance; often performed by the family members and friends. But that is changing gradually. It is difficult for everyone to dance a traditional dance and people often choose to dance the way they are most comfortable. A well-choreographed Bollywood dance in which family and close friends perform, is now common. But challenging this trend is the introduction of Western and Latin dance performances - Waltz, or Salsa, or Bachata. “Everyone can dance Sala”!

Latin dances, especially Salsa and Bachata, have caught the fancy of a number of people across India. There is a veritable community of Latin Dancers of all age groups in New Delhi –NCR, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkatta. There are numerous instructors in these cities who have made a career of teaching Latin Dances. Most schools are being successfully run by couples or men. But our leading ladies run their own schools and are capable to teaching the dance forms to both men and women alike. Yes they can instruct and lead anybody! Here’s a little about each of these charming ladies in New Delhi – NCR.

Shalini Sen –BailaLoca

 

Creativity and communication are what best describe this enterprising young lady. She started her advertising career in 2004, with a keen focus on brand building and communication. Bridging the gap between a decades old brand vision and keeping it relevant with an appropriate communication strategy in today’s fast paced and tech-driven world, was exciting in her past career. After a successful stint, and having worked with leading advertising agencies such as McCann Erickson Worldwide and M&C Saatchi she finally moved out of the industry in 2016, as the Brand Strategy Director at RK Swamy BBDO.

This daughter of an Indian Air Force fighter pilot, took to structured forms of dancing and just loved it. She and her friend had been learning to dance together for a number of years in India. Shalini then went to the United States of America, and her friend went to Europe, to train further in various Latin dance forms. They co-founded BailaLoca dance studio in January 2014. Today Shalini continues to teach dance and her friend is a leading DJ in NCR’s Latin dance community.

BailaLoca literally means “Dance Crazy” but to Shalini and her team, it means the freedom to dance. They believe that to dance well, one has to let go of all restraints and let the soul connect; with the partner and with the rhythm of the music. 

 

At BailaLoca, Shalini teaches Bachata, Brazilian Zouk, Merengue, and Rock & Roll, amongst other dance forms. In her words, she is drawn to the 'almost addictive' release that dance gives, the 'unstructured' structure, the playfulness and variety of music from all parts of the world, the many, many interpretations of the basic movements to make something new and beautiful. Even now, every time she steps on to the floor, she still feels like she is dancing for the first time...it brings her such happiness.

 

Bachata remains her first love, and Zouk her soulmate. These are the main dance styles she teaches at BailaLoca. She focuses on teaching the fundamentals of the dance form, and working with that foundation to create many beautiful moves on the dance floor as one advances in their learning. 

 

International Zouk Day, or IZD, is an annual global dance event that Shalini manages and heads operationally. Shalini was the first Zouk instructor in India in 2011. She trains a team for IZD every year, to spread awareness of this beautiful, inclusive social partner dance style that is loved around the world.

 

Monica Ghosh – Salsa with Monica

 

“I find myself complete in dance”. So says this petite young Bengali lady. At a very young age, everyone realized that she was a natural dancer when she would dance impressively to whatever music would play. At the age of 16 years, she joined Ashley Lobo’s classes in New Delhi, to learn Jazz. During her training, her passion for dance was apparent. Her rhythm and the ease with which she could learn the steps, led to her being inducted as an Assistant Instructor within a year of starting her training. And soon as she turned 18 she was inducted as a Jazz Instructor. She taught Jazz at two Ashley Lobo centres in New Delhi.

 

While learning with Ashley Lobo, Monica spent some time learning Funk Jazz with ShiamakDawar as well. Here too, she showed her dance skills and amazing footwork. So much so that she was selected to be a part of the ShiamakDawar dance team and was scheduled to undergo a six month internship in Mumbai. But she was just 16 and her parents rightly did not permit their underage daughter to live alone in Mumbai. So she gave up the opportunity and stayed with Ashley Lobo’s team instead.

 

Her passion for dance led Monica to explore other dance forms too. Salsa was storming the country then and every young heart was keen to do something Latin. So was Monica. And so she started to learn Salsa at Salsa India under the tutelage of none other than KayteeNamgyal. At the age of 20, Monica was inducted as an instructor in Salsa India where she worked for the next four years and made some of her best friends in this field.

 

Monica is also a certified Bachata dance instructor having undergone an Instructor course by an internationally acclaimed Bachata Instructor.

 

To spread her wings further, Monica took up a job in another dance school where she was the primary instructor for teenage students of Latin dances. In addition, she was also given charge of managing and operating the school. This proved useful in launching her own dance school.

 

Today Monica counts among the leading ladies in Salsa in the NCR region. Her school, Salsa with Monica, currently has two centres at Noida and she teaches her students Salsa and Bachata. She is working on introducing Kizomba and some other popular Latin dances to her portfolio.

 

IrineLikokeli– Irine’s Dance Academy

 

IrineLikokeli, born and raised in Tbilisi, Georgia, started her training in ‘Georgian National Ballet’ at the age of 6 and intensively trained for the art over the next 7 years. 

 

During her rigorous training in Ballet, in her late teenage years she discovered the beauty of Latin American and Ballroom Dance forms and fell in love with it. 

 

She trained at the Studio “Gratsia” for more than 6 years earning a Diploma degree in Latin American and Ballroom Dance forms and became a certified member, instructor and choreographer of the Tbilisi Sports Dance National Federation, Georgia. 

 

During her training and certification years, she not only participated in various competitions, shows, and programs but also emerged as a winner in many of them. She was awarded the first place for Solo Salsa in the Tbilisi Dance Sports Federation tournament and in Latin American and Ballroom Dance competitions several times. 

 

After re-locating to India in 2010,Irine started her own dance Academy, ‘Irine's Dance Academy’ (IDA), which is the oldest Latin Dance Studio based in Sec 50, Nirvana Country, Gurgaon.

 

Irine is among the first instructors to bring Latin and Ballroom dance to India, especially Delhi NCR, creating a community of dancers and spreading the love and the passion for the art form.

 

She spent years devoting her time, energy and resources in extensively training her students to master the art. Her students comprise all age groups and cultures and share the passion for dancing as an art form. 

 

Some of her students today, have excelled, become finalists, and won various dance competitions and Dance Reality shows across the globe. Some have also successfully launched their own dance academies.