Dance is like Spirituality

Dance for me, is all about soul to soul. Dance is like Spirituality. It's about Self Expression. It's like Healing yourself. Dance is not only about a physical movement. It's got mind, body, spirit, fitness, art, creativity...You can really grow from there.

India has such a rich culture of music and dance, I felt I should go to another level that is modern and contemporary.
So I started my classes for kids. It has given a platform to a lot of kids who are working or want to be superstars and great actors.

I've been involved with Spirituality for the past 29 years. I feel a lot of people, with computer and all the technology, have lost out on something more precious – their own self worth.
They have gone into so much competition and so much madness that they are losing out the simple things in life.

A lot of people who come to my classes, get a sense of self confidence and self worth.
If there's something magical that happens at my classes, I don't know how it happens, I'm not even involved in the magic.

It's all done by the Almighty. But something does happen that is inspiring...For me if dance can change your life then dance is spirituality.

When Aamir Khan approached me to do Taare Zameen Par, I was pleasantly happy as I had never worked with him before and the subject was about Dyslexia.

In my dance classes, so many of my kids are Dyslexic, Autistic, have HIV, there are street children, there are children who have run away from jails and very abused kids.
And there are also people like you and me.

Aamir was looking for a boy in my school. And I told him, “I have one kid and his name is Darsheel.”

He said, “That's good but I need to see all the kids.”
So he saw everyone and then spotted my dance company kid Darsheel, who turned out to be a fantastic actor!
I didn't even know he could act so well!

For many years I've been singing and dancing but for me, my major passion has been acting and singing. Dancing came much later in life. Acting and singing is what I used to do in school and college and theatre. It was beautiful!

My Institute for the Performing Arts is not about people who are good dancers. It's for anybody and everybody.

I have people who are four-years-old, people who are 86-years-old who want to come on stage and dance.
I have mothers, grandfathers, people who are really overweight.
There's nothing like you have to be a good dancer or you have to have a great body.

In fact, most of the people who come to me are not really dancers and don't have great bodies! But they are there and that's the whole thing. My motto is to have people dance.

My mother has been a very strong support in my life. She's been very inspiring. But she always said,
“You have to get an Education.” And I did.

In every show, I sing a powerful ballad for my mother: Because You Loved Me.
It's my way of thanking her. When people are alive, I feel you should say, “Thank you and I Love you.” How do you do it when they're gone?

When it comes to fitness, I confess, I don't eat right.
I love to eat all the wrong things like achar, vada pav, curry rice...but I eat moderately not like a mad man.

But the more important thing is to workout. I don't believe in strong diets where you kill yourself dieting. Life is not about diets it is about balance and moderation.

But you must have some physical fitness. It enhances your stamina and ability.
In my free time, I swim, I love the beach, I love hanging out with my close friends, I don't like partying anymore,
I think I've grown out of it.
I enjoy silly things like playing Scrabble, Carrom and Monopoly like a kid!

I believe stress is caused because you have not given time to cure yourself or heal yourself of something that is upsetting you.

A good way to bust stress is go out, get into a sport, do some walking, jogging, dance, anything that gets you physically moving. When you sweat, you feel good.

The most important way to release stress, that I believe from my heart and soul is - Prayer.
If you pray from your heart and soul, even if it is a minute long, if it's a genuine prayer, you can get over stress really fast.