All the right moves

CHRISTINE MACHADO

Princy Mehta has been pretty busy with all her dance and fitness classes. In fact when she finally sits down for a chat, she admits that she is a tad bit exhausted. Even so, she comes alive as she talks about how her tryst with dancing began.   

Born in Bharuch, Gujarat, Mehta moved to Ahmedabad to pursue higher studies following which she delved into the world of PR and event consulting, doing four years in Ahmedabad and following it up with another three years in Mumbai. Alongside, she enthusiastically spent many hours dancing. “I have been dancing since my school days and infact began training in Bharatnatyam when I was about 6-7 years old. This I did for about six years,” she recalls. It was in Ahmedabad that Mehta was first introduced to Western dances. “Up until then I was only exposed to Bollywood music. I didn’t even know how to speak English properly,” she reveals. Mehta began training first in hip hop and contemporary dance and also joined Shiamak Davar’s Dance Academy in Ahmedabad. “I joined first as a student and was then promoted to doing professional dance training. I also did a couple of shows with them,” she says.

In 2013 however, she took a sabbatical from her career and together with her husband moved to Goa. “Both of us were looking for an alternate career and the only thing I knew to do apart from my line of work was dance,” she says. And so Mehta decided to try and make dance her main area of work. Through a colleague, she was introduced to Studio 101 and thus began her first ever dance workshop in Bollywood dancing which extended for a month. “Ever since then there has been no looking back. In fact, some of my students from my first workshops are still my students today. I’ve just completed five years since I moved to Goa in February and Goa has been nothing but good to me giving me plenty of opportunities to pursue my dance career,” she says.

Apart from her dance workshops at Studio 101, she also conducts Strong with Zumba, a high intensity workout at the studio and at Don Bosco, Panaji. She also does strength training workshops at Fitness Bar and apart from this is a dance teacher at Sharada Mandir School, Miramar and Ardee School in Sangolda.

Elaborating on her strength training classes, she says that this is a fitness class which helps you tone your muscles. “This includes weight training where one has to pick up dumb bells or work on machines in the gym. And no, this will not make women bulk up as they don’t have the testosterone levels for this,” she says. But isn’t dance, a good workout in itself? “Dance is great cardio exercise. With cardio however you will lose muscle but not fat. I believe that every person should aim for a combo of both – cardio as well as weight training to get a well toned body, protect the joints and make muscles stronger,” she says.

Having grown up with Bollywood music,  she specialises in Bollywood freestyle dance and fitness. “Latin dance on the other hand is something I learnt only after I came to Goa,” she says, adding it is a misconcept that Goa doesn’t like Bollywood, as she personally has found quite a following for this style of dance. “I have observed  that there is an excelled market for hip hop her in Goa. Contemporary dance is also picking up. In fact a lot of youngsters are interested in contemporary and ballet,” she says. As for Mehta , she is now very interested in learning Dance hall and Reggae. “These dance forms originated in the US sometime in the 70s or 80s. They are very new to me,” she says. And all the while she will keep dancing. “To dance is for the soul to be free,” she signs off.