0:01

[Music]

0:16

>>Ria: Hey this is Ria from the Giggle 
Queens and you’re watching MAD.

0:20

[Transition Music]

0:26

This is probably the biggest moment in my

0:29

career so far especially as an artist.

0:32

Uh, you know I had done dance
my whole life.

0:35

I did like jazz, tap, ballet,
I did Bharatanatyam, Bollywood,

0:38

hip-hop like all the things
and I was doing it,

0:41

you know, as a hobby as a lot of people do.

0:43

Um and I don’t think I realized how much

0:46

it was a part of my life,
you know.

0:48

Um a lot of the people I know,
a lot of my friends

0:51

I met through dance and 
I didn’t realize how much I needed it.

0:55

My plan was to become a teacher,
like a classroom teacher,

0:58

and I graduated my Master’s
and I was looking for work  

1:01

and I was teaching dance in school but
also supply teaching.

1:05

And I have my best friend Jennalee who
is teaching dance full-time

1:08

and I just remember feeling so
envious of her every time she was  

1:12

doing workshops or teaching
or performing. 

1:14

And she just got to be creative and got to

1:18

live her life as a dancer.

1:20

And I remember feeling
really sad and I was

1:23

— I had a year of, I think a lot of people
go through that after school,

1:26

you know you’re like
“what is my life, what am I doing?”

1:29

So I went through kind of a hard year of

1:31

figuring out what I wanted to do
and um once I finally decided, you know,

1:36

I think what I actually
need to do is just make that jump

1:39

and pursue

1:40

dance as a career then I…it all came together, you know.

1:44

I was so happy, but it was hard
because I was really worried.  

1:48

I think a lot of South Asian
artists feel like that too, you’re

1:51

— I’m worried about what my parents are gonna think.

1:53

So that was probably the 
hardest part for me.

1:55

I remember telling my parents
and they were kind of stunned

1:58

only because they were like
we don’t know anything about this world.  

2:01

Right, you know, my dad was like I 
know about engineers and doctors so  

2:05

I don’t really know how to help you  
in this world.

2:07

And they just want to make sure that

2:09

A I was happy but I could
support myself you know.

2:12

So once I kind of
made a plan for them and

2:15

you know showed them how I can make
money and support myself as an artist

2:19

and as a dancer in Toronto
then we were all good.

2:21

On one side, myself, 
I’ve done a lot of workshops in Brampton.  

2:25

You know, it’s amazing,

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it’s probably my favorite thing to do
is to go into schools and work with

2:30

students, you know, who look like me!  

2:33

And I get to represent an artist who is
South Asian as well and who can bring

2:38

music that they know.

2:40

You know, I think that’s really exciting for them

2:41

that they get to come up to me and be like

2:43

I know that song that we were dancing to,
my dad plays it all the time at home and…

2:47

you know what I mean — and 
I can feel their excitement because

2:49

they probably don’t get to see that a lot of the time, you know.

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So that has been really rewarding for me because I…  

2:55

I didn’t have that growing up.

2:57

And then Jennalee and I
have started our own business actually,

3:00

aside from Giggle Queens, we’ve started a 
school program called Dance ‘N’ Culture.  

3:03

And because of my work that I’ve done

3:06

in Brampton and just kind of in the

3:08

GTA with Indian dance  

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we decided that we wanted to create a
program that represents

3:13

a bunch of different cultural dances
in schools.

3:16

So we have a roster of people 
doing Chinese dance, Afro, Bollywood

3:22

and we have a bunch of different  
instructors who will go into schools

3:25

and bring those cultural dances
into the school and into the curriculum

3:28

cause we think it’s so needed and

3:30

[enthusiastically] representation matters.

3:34

[Bindis and Bangles by Raja Kumari playing]

4:42

>>Ria: My name is Ria…

4:44

>>Jennalee: Jennalee

4:45

>>Ria: Uh we are a choreography and
performance duo.

4:50

We’ve kind of created
this little niche for ourselves

4:52

to be happy in the dance world so

4:55

whenever we choreograph
we try to add a little bit of

4:57

comedy to whatever we’re doing.

5:00

We also have this other side of our
brand where we’ve kind of like fused

5:03

our two dance backgrounds.

5:06

We do a little bit of fusion
with Eastern and Western styles

5:09

like Bollywood and hip hop,
and Bharatanatyam and waacking.

5:12

>>Jennalee: Trying to figure out rehearsals safely

5:17

we definitely didn’t want to involve any
other dancers

5:21

and at first we were creating distantly,

5:24

and then we bubbled.

5:26

So that was definitely a huge 
challenge.

5:28

You know, usually we’re right up in each 
other’s space and

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and the ideas are flowing. 

5:33

There’s something about dancers and being physically…

5:37

you know, it’s so physical you need
that energy

5:40

and it was navigating it over Zoom

5:42

for much of our creation process was

5:45

hard.

5:46

>>Ria: Keeping in mind that you’re
not going to be performing

5:50

to a live audience, 
you know

5:53

and that’s where we get a lot of
our energy, when we’re performing.

5:56

Um…but yeah, the BMM setup was so
great that it kind of

6:00

subbed in for the audience.

6:03

With…with the music and the lights  
and everything

6:06

it still created that
atmosphere of performing

6:08

so it was still easy to give that energy
that we usually do.

6:11

>>Jennalee: The coolest part for me, personally, was that

6:14

my family around the world could 
watch me

6:17

dance and it’s been a long time for

6:19

you know my grandmother out on the 
East coast in rural Nova Scotia or  

6:24

have family overseas so

6:26

that was really cool.

6:27

>>Ria: We’ve been doing this for

6:29

four or five years now

6:31

um and each year

6:33

— we were saying before — 
each year it gets better and better.

6:35

They really up their game.

6:37

They clearly, you know, it’s one 
thing to

6:40

take feedback and put out surveys

6:42

and it’s another to actually act on what  
people say

6:46

and it’s clear that they’re listening.

6:48

There’s just so much communication going on, 

6:51

you know you really feel valued as an artist

6:54

and you feel like you’re you’re important
part of the show.

6:57

Like, you’re a star when you come to 
BMM which is a nice feeling to have

7:02

especially as a dance artist
because that rarely happens.   

7:04

>>Jennalee: I think we both felt very vulnerable

7:07

as we sort of
embarked on this

7:09

new and different dance journey

7:11

and this festival has helped us

7:14

find an outlet
and feel

7:17

like it is worth creating and worth doing.

7:21

[Music]

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