Today we’d like to introduce you to bollyflow. They and their team shared their story with us below:
bollyflow is an Austin-based desi-fusion dance company started by 5 friends, Monika, Anushka, Bhavya, Thanusha, and Alekhya. We all started dancing at a young age, and overtime our interest and passion grew as some of us became technically trained in different styles, joined professional Bollywood dance companies, and participated in competitive collegiate dance teams. After college, there were fewer opportunities to exercise this passion, and a dance-sized hole began to form. From there, ideating led to reality, and bollyflow was born.
We all met in different phases of our dance lives – Anushka and Monika met in high school while dancing together at Rhythm India, a Bollywood dance company based out of Houston. Monika eventually moved to Los Angeles for college, where she continued her dance journey with Joya Kazi Entertainment. Separately, Alekhya, Anushka, Bhavya, and Thanusha met in college at the University of Texas at Austin as teammates on Texas Mohini, an all-female Bollywood fusion competitive dance team. Dance led to friendship, as it often does, and we all stayed in touch. Life brought all of us to Austin, which allowed bollyflow to blossom.
Our mission for bollyflow is to share our creativity and talent with the local Austin and virtual community. We sensed a need for more South Asian dance presence, performers for community events, in-person/virtual customized instruction for wedding/event choreography, and workshops/classes. Dance is a huge part of South Asian culture, and especially South Asian weddings, so we wanted to provide a platform to celebrate our culture in the best way we know.
Since launching in early February, we have received so much love. We are overwhelmed with the response on social media as other creators and fellow dance lovers appreciate, repost, and even recreate our choreography! In early March, we were invited to perform at the Texas State Capitol for Indian American Impact’s Desi Day of Action. By the end of March, we completed our first and very successful workshop. 40+ dance enthusiasts attended, selling it out! Our first wedding services clients performed our customized choreography in early April, and we have even more in the pipeline!
We are so proud of everything we have achieved in these last few months, and as we grow, we hope to continue providing fun dance content on social media, performing at more events, and organizing more frequent workshops. We also hope to build partnerships with other South Asian brands and host community events to immerse the Austin community with our culture. We’re so excited for our future! Follow our socials to stay tuned!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
We are very fortunate to have separate and fulfilling careers that can help with start-up resources for bollyflow and an incredible community of friends, family, and supporters to help promote our brand and services! While we’ve enjoyed a lot of early wins, we’ve also faced a few challenges.
Building a company from the ground up with different voices and opinions has been integral to our success but has also been difficult. We, of course, disagree on strategy and content all the time, but the variety of thoughts helps foster innovation. We’ve dealt with last-minute cancellations from vendors that were integral to our workshops, which allowed us to get creative and self-sufficient. It’s been difficult to carve out time to create content with our very busy, individual schedules, but that’s led everyone to be more organized.
Necessity is the mother of creation, so we have learned new skills like creative producing, videography, editing, and social media management.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
bollyflow is an Austin-based dance company that brings our community together to immerse ourselves in various styles of desi-fusion dance. We express our culture through:
-wedding choreography
-workshops
-private lessons
-performances
-dance fitness
Our team consists of 5 of us – Alekhya Aelety, Anushka Bhatia, Bhavya Bhalla, Monika Rao, and Thanusha Neelapareddy. While Anushka, Bhavya, and Monika founded bollyflow, Alekhya and Thanusha are our very talented creative directors who are an integral part of our team, contributing to all of our services and social media content.
Together, we are able to build a strong foundation for bollyflow and grow into the company we hope to be. With all of our styles combined, we specialize in classic Bollywood dance, Bollywood-fusion, hip-hop, South Asian classical and semi-classical dance styles. Since dance and music transcend many different countries and cultures, we strive to continue learning new dance styles and share them with each other and our community!
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Our biggest inspiration comes from other dancers on social media and the South Asian film industries that put out amazing choreography nearly every day through movies and/or indie projects! It’s amazing to see all the talent out there that helps us challenge ourselves and the limits of our own creativity.
Contact Info:
- Email: bollyflowatx@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/bollyflowatx
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bollyflow
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@bollyflowatx
Image Credits
First hero picture shot by Rhea Palicha
