0:02

[Music]

0:19

>>Indiana: I’m Indiana Mehta from 
BollyHeelsTO

0:22

and you’re watching MAD.

0:25

[Transition Music]

0:29

I am from Bombay and I live here now.

0:32

It’s been two years and…I’ve been
dancing since I was three years old.

0:37

I do ballet, jazz, contemporary, hip-hop, 

0:39

heels and Bollywood, of course,  
on all the Indian classical and folk dances.

0:45

Anushya is…

0:47

a full-time pharmacist

0:48

and outside of that she’s trained in  
Indian classical dancing.

0:52

So yeah dance has always 
been a passion for her

0:56

and uh she loves creating, 
we both do,

0:59

and we really work well together 
so here we are.

1:02

About BollyHeelsTo, so like the name 
says, it’s Bollywood.

1:06

So the bolly-heels because we 
love dancing in heels,

1:08

we feel more confident, more powerful

1:11

and it’s that added skill and challenge
will…

1:14

will like make the piece and the dance 
look even more fantastic I feel.

1:18

Both of us believe in 
diversity and inclusivity

1:21

and Toronto being such  
a diverse city and community

1:25

we love working 
with dancers from different background.

1:28

So our dancers today were…someone’s 
from Russia, someone’s a Filipino,

1:33

someone’s Italian, someone’s from China…  

1:37

I’m from India, Anushya’s from Sri Lanka

1:39

and yeah so we all come together
and we share the space.

1:43

Yes we want to bring people’s styles,  
yes we want to bring their culture

1:46

cause there’s so much that comes out  
as a performer.

1:50

Like as an Indian, for example, 
and being a Gujarati,

1:53

like Garba is natural,  
Garba is in the blood right.

1:56

We love pulling culture, we love pulling
out their styles, and they’re   

2:00

individuality in our performances.

2:02

So it’s not just about
yeah this person’s

2:06

a certain color or this person looks 
a certain way, it’s not…

2:09

not about that.
It’s about their style and their  

2:12

personality and them as people.

2:15

Especially coming from
like a South Asian background,

2:17

pursuing dance as a career is always a challenge and

2:20

sometimes you’ll look down upon, but

2:23

thankfully my parents have always been supportive.

2:26

So it’s been easier to pursue that,
but the turning point for me was

2:30

definitely when I graduated from a

2:32

performing arts college in London, England.

2:35

That’s when I got the whole…like the 
holistic

2:39

atmosphere in an environment of

2:42

not just dance it was more about acting,

2:44

it’s music, it’s performance, it’s TV, it’s stage.

2:50

[Jai Ho! by A. R. Rahman and The Pussycat Dolls feat. Nicole Scherzinger]

4:10

>>Indiana: We are Canada’s first 
Bollywood fusion in heels dance company.

4:14

[Excitingly] Yes in heels, in heels and in heels!

4:17

[Laughs]

4:18

So we do everything in stilettos, but uh…

4:22

when it’s pure classical
or pure folk we

4:25

do not do that in heels because
that would be disrespecting the style.

4:29

And other thing that we really stand by  

4:31

is working with the diverse community 
of Toronto. 

4:35

>>Sanjay: My name is Sanjay.  
I’m a drag queen

4:37

so I do drag so that’s how I met BollyHeels.

4:39

>>Indiana: We love to incorporate 
and include everybody

4:43

irrespective of their color, cast, sex.

4:46

Doesn’t matter. 
So with Sanjay who goes as Angina,

4:50

as her drag name, we did a pride video 
recently with five, diverse

4:55

drag queens of Toronto. 

4:57

We’re trying to promote and include everybody and

5:00

showcase it in our style which is the fusion.

5:03

>>Sanjay: It’s an exciting journey for them,
for that path, I would say because

5:06

I feel like for the LGBTQ there’s 
not a lot of

5:09

things that are going on, a lot of…not a lot of dance teams

5:12

are like you know pairing up because,
I mean, it’s still a sensitive situation.

5:15

Like being a drag queen on top of that it’s
also a very sensitive thing.

5:19

>>Indiana: The biggest challenge 
always, always, always is

5:22

scheduling everybody’s time.

5:24

But for the show we never actually 
rehearsed

5:27

the show with everybody together.

5:30

So we taught the choreography
over video camera, like over video call, 

5:34

and if you missed our rehearsal we would
send you a tutorial.

5:37

And then the other thing was like 
if this is my right hand

5:40

not all phones mirror it. 
[Laughs]

5:43

As soon as we finished teaching the
whole set we started meeting in a park

5:47

and we never actually got a chance
to do the whole show in heels because  

5:50

usually whenever we have a show,
we have a studio space

5:53

where we can go in and do it in heels.  

5:57

[Freedom by Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar]

6:12

>>Indiana: Virtual was weird.  
We were like, yes at least we have a

6:15

platform to perform and this is even 
better now

6:17

cause we have a bigger audience that
we can reach out to

6:20

cause there’s only so many people who 
would actually, physically,

6:23

make it to the…square.

6:24

But now like you had, I think, a few millions

6:27

who logged in to watch the performance 
so…

6:30

which is a way bigger reach
so that was quite surreal.

6:33

And…

6:35

like I’ve been in Canada only 
two years now so it is just  

6:39

more overwhelming to see
the support that we received  

6:44

not only from the South Asian community, 
but outside of the South Asian community.

6:48

So we’re just putting our work out there
and letting people decide

6:51

whether you follow us,
you don’t follow us…

6:54

but people are starting to like our work 
cause we —

6:57

we’re trying to be different in each of our
content that we’ve been producing.  

7:00

So…yes, it has definitely helped us 
reach a bigger audience on the day.

7:07

[Music]

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