Virtual Yoga Dance-A-Thon: Fundraiser for India COVID Relief

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Join us for Yoga, Bollywood, and Bhangra to support Covid relief in India!

SCHEDULE:

8:00-9:00am Yoga with Richa Kapoor
9:10-10:10am Bollywood with Neha Giridharan
10:20-11:20am Bhangra with Joti Singh
11:30am-12:30pm Bolly/Bhangra with Riddhi Kapoor
CLASS DESCRIPTIONS: (scroll down for instructors bios)

Yoga with Richa Kapoor

Hatha flow works with mini-cycles of Vinyasa flow, where the focus is on strengthening the core through Sun salutations and backbends. The focus is on strength building and agility through focus and repeated cycles of certain postures. The focus is on opening and promoting a deep stretching of the body with regulated breath for holistic well-being. The sessions also include meditation, Pranayama with journal reads, where the body meets the mind in harmony. These classes are available with modifications and are available for a varied age group.
Bollywood with Neha Giridharan

Class begins with stretches and a warm up to get us ready for an hour of dance! Class will focus on learning original choreography to popular Indian music. Every class ends with performing the routine for each other in a fun, judgement-free environment! No prior dance experience needed – class is open to everyone. Recommended attire: anything that you can move in and makes you feel confident.
Footwear: Athletic shoes or barefoot. Can’t wait to dance together!

Bhangra with Joti Singh

Bhangra is a harvest dance originally from the state of Punjab in the northwestern corner of India and Pakistan. As people continue to cross oceans and cultures, Bhangra music and dance ceaselessly evolves, as influences of Hiphop, Reggae and many other genres of music inspire the artists who create this new Bhangra music and dance. Today Bhangra is danced mostly at weddings and celebrations by both men and women.​ Enjoy this high-energy class that begins with a warm up, moves into choreography, and ends with a cool down.
Bolly/Bhangra with Riddhi Kapoor

Bollywood dance is a power packed dance form that incorporates dance steps from a variety of dance forms such as freestyle, Bhangra, Indian folk and classic fusion Hip Hop. Each of these dance forms share signs and dance steps that combine to make this energetic, avant-garde Bollywood dance form. Beneath all this panache, comes a series of fun hand symbols and body movements from India’s innumerable traditional dance forms that imbibe not only its opulent mythology but also its rich culture and ever changing identity. Bollywood dance is all about having fun and living in the moment. It is a way of celebration, frolic and happiness!!
So, get ready for some funky dance steps (Bollywood fusion with a touch of Bhangra) that will turn you into an exotic yet super sassy Bollywood performer!

Class format : Meet and greet with stretches , warm up to catchy bollywood/bhangra songs to get the body moving and cardio workout , Song Choreo – breakdown of steps with counts and repeated with music. We will end with breathing, stretching and a thank you for the session.

PRICE:

Classes cost $15-$100,000 per class

SUPPORT: Funding will go to the following efforts
-Khalsa Aid International
-Save Indian Trans Lives: Covid Relief
-ROTARY BENGALURU DISHA’S CAMPAIGN TO HOSPITALS IN BENGALURU FIGHT THE OXYGEN CRISIS
-Food and medical support for 6000 waste-picker families by Hasiru Dala

Do you know an organization involved in India’s Covid relief that needs support? Email us at managingdirector@duniyadance.com

INSTRUCTOR BIOS:

Richa Kapoor: @richsoulseeker
200 hours registered yoga instructor, Florida, USA
What started as a quest towards emotional healing and identifying with a like-minded community turned into a way of living for Richa.
As a yoga teacher, Richa hopes to bring inclusivity and diversity into her classes, where her students can engage in holistic health without boundaries. She has trained students, children from different ethnicities, and backgrounds combining her experience as a high school educator and theatre professional from the East. As a brand photographer, content creator, and educator she hopes to empower her students through her combined expertise. Her assets are combining the ancient studies of Hatha yoga where the body and mind combine to work better for human functioning. Her tailor-made classes, authentic teaching of philosophy, and mantras make her classes a much-needed experience in one’s routine. Her online course and blog “Healing through Writing” has hit a chord with many, including corporate houses such as Google-Verily, California.

Neha Giridharan: @neha2288
Neha Giridharan has been dancing for most of her life! She is formally trained in Bharatanatyam, a South Indian Classical dance style, and graduated from the Arathi School of Indian Dances in Arizona. She moved towards Bollywood in college, where she co-founded the collegiate Bollywood dance team “Om Shanti,” and competed from LA to NY. When Neha moved to the Bay Area, she started her dance company “White Swan Dance,” through which she taught a weekly class in San Francisco, made dance videos, and choreographed for weddings. She is currently an advisor for the Bay Area-based dance company Duniya Dance and Drum. She hopes to continue her dance endeavors here in North Carolina! Apart from dance, Neha is a Hospital Pharmacist and loves traveling the world with her husband!

Joti Singh: @duniyadanceanddrum
Joti Singh, Artistic Director of Duniya Dance and Drum Company, is a dance creator and innovator, sprung from the U.S. American south to parents from northern India. She is the Artistic Director of Duniya Dance and Drum Company. Joti began her dance training in Punjabi circles, carrying through her body the culture that’s in her blood and memory. As an adult, West African dance entered Joti’s purview, transforming her body’s imagination. Through this multilingual body, Joti explores where history intertwines with contemporary continuities of celebration and injustice. She created the performance “Half and Halves,” about the Punjabi-Mexican communities of California with collaborator Zenon Barron. Currently, Joti is creating the piece “Ghadar Geet: Blood and Ink,” about her great grandfather, Bhagwan Singh Gyanee’s role in the Ghadar Party, based in San Francisco in the early 20th century, fighting for India’s independence from Britain.

Riddhi Kapoor: @rkapoor9
Dancing makes me the ‘happiest’. My motivation to learn dance started at the age of three. My mother’s need to instill a sense of hobby in me led me to embrace dancing as a creative form to express my emotions. Dancing is the greatest connect one can have with the self and it gives me the adrenalin to learn, perform and grow every day. I have been teaching Bollywood dance in the Bay Area for more than four years and to me dance is a way of celebration, frolic and happiness!!
Apart from dancing I love making earrings and a complete foodie!
Originally from Bangalore (India) and been in the bay area for over 5 years now.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.