Bollywood Dance Fitness
What is Bollywood?
It’s loud, it’s colorful, it’s fiery – and it might just be your new favorite workout.
Bollywood isn’t just a film industry — it’s a full-on experience. Indian cinema doesn’t do subtle. We’re talking drama cranked all the way up, costumes that demand attention, and dance numbers so explosive they make everything else look half-asleep. Bollywood pulls from classical Indian dance traditions, folk styles, hip-hop, jazz — basically anything that makes you want to move your whole body and forget you’re exercising.
I came to this dance form through my own life — I married into an East Indian family, and what started as cultural immersion turned into a decade-plus love affair with everything spicy, loud, and gloriously over-the-top about India. This class is my love letter to that.
No experience needed. No judgment. Just come ready to move.
Your Instructor
I’ve been teaching this format for over a decade, and I didn’t come to it from a YouTube rabbit hole. I traveled to India 6 times, studied Classical Indian Dance, and trained in Kalaripayattu — one of the world’s oldest and most electrifying martial arts. My movement background runs deep: Bellydance, Irish step, Tap, Jazz, Tai Chi/Fan, Aikido, and Tae Kwon Do. I’ve spent my life in my body, learning what it can do.
Movement has also been part of my own healing story. So when I step into that room with you, I’m not just running you through choreography. I’m bringing everything — the culture, the history, the sweat, and the heart.
Hundreds of routines. Ready to go. Join me in this colorful, cultural journey right here in the Northland — and discover the fun, the fire, and the pure joy of Bollywood dance.
Hands That Tell Stories
Before there were words, there were mudras. Ancient hand gestures used for thousands of years in Indian classical dance to tell entire stories without speaking a single syllable. A blooming lotus. A peacock. A heartbreak. A triumph. Your hands become the narrator — and in this class, you’ll use some of them in the routines.
I didn’t just study mudras for the art of it. I needed them. Years of sewing work for Cirque du Soleil and Blue Man Group , had wrecked my hands and wrists with overuse and repetitive strain injuries. Then I met my husband — from India — and everything changed. Through that connection came studying the Classical Indian Dance form, Kathak and the ancient martial art, Kalaripayattu. Moving my hands with intention became part of my healing. I didn’t just learn this culture — it helped put me back together.
That’s what I’m bringing into the room with you.
My Curry- Odyssey
A Little Name Dropping (Because Why Not)
Here’s something you won’t find on any other fitness instructor’s bio in the Twin Ports.
My ex-husband is a filmmaker in India — working alongside producers and directors who are the Bollywood equivalent of Steven Spielberg and James Cameron. That connection took me places most people only dream about. I’ve been on set, behind the scenes, in the thick of it. I’ve stood on stage and spoken at Nitin Desai Studios — one of the most legendary production houses in Bollywood history and India’s answer to Universal Studios.
So when I say this class is authentic, I mean it in a way that’s genuinely hard to top.
I didn’t fall in love with Bollywood from the outside looking in. I walked in through a side door marked family — and it changed everything about how I move, how I teach, and what I believe a fitness class can actually feel like. Oh — and learning to cook Indian cuisine and make a proper Chai, Chef’s kiss.
Here’s what nobody tells you about India: everyone assumes it’s all yoga mats and peaceful, quiet spirituality. And yes, that’s there. But the moment you step off the plane, India hits you. There’s a smell — spices cooking somewhere nearby, incense drifting through humid air, the sound of rickshaw and car horns, color and life coming at you from every direction. It is fast, loud, spicy, and completely overwhelming in the most beautiful way possible.
That energy? That’s what I bring into this class. Every single time.
