Khottey Sikke Dance School has its roots stemming from a dance group that was started in the year 2010 by Kesha Surti. For the love for dancing and choreography, the teaching aspect kicked in to push her to start this dance school.

There is not a single day that Kesha don’t have a personal dancing session in my room. This enthusiastic lad said that dance was always supposed to be one of her careers, it was a hobby turned into a passion and then more than just a career. She elaborates that it has grown bigger that what she had initially though, and never saw it going so far. This was mainly due to the rigmarole every Indian kid goes through – get a degree, get qualified, etc. Well Indians as a whole are ambitious to be short!

Fortunately, Kesha had a massive support for her dancing hobby. She describes excitedly that her parents never had an issue with her pursuing dancing as a career, they had zero qualms if this was the full-time work, she wanted to dive in.

But Kesha has equal inclination towards her current profession as she aces the role of an HR manger. She is very much into HR as well, which she better describes as the role that has shaped her in many ways till today. This profession helped her become a better leader, improved her time management skills, contributed to development of admin skills and lot of all that.

It is the blend of dancing and human resources career that keeps her on the toes, but dancing on the other hand is a stress buster.

The super intense advisory role gets on her at times, and so dance is what distracts her from the corporate culture. She says, “Those six hours that I am in the studio on Saturday is like I forget everything about life, its like having the best time of my life.”

Not only dance classes but her one-man army also wallow in wedding choreography, private sessions if someone want to learn for self-development, competition, learn for an event, etc.

The director, choreographer and teacher at the Khottey Sikke Dance School does not stop here, each time she focuses on how to better herself and outgrow from old patterns, with that she equally emphasises on how to give people better opportunities. Always evolving and thinking out of the box for projects is prime.

Fortunately, she has been lucky enough to have those kinds of people around her that not only appreciate her art but also get equally involved. “I have a great team of students that really support me, they volunteer at events and lead teams,” says Kesha. What else can a teacher ask from her students? Equally or above involvement that too with their whole heart.

“I dance with a five-year-old as well as forty-year-old, I really don’t mind, I get on the stage and just want to dance with everyone and do everything I can to make people happy and enjoy themselves dancing.” says the trained Bharatnatyam dancer.

The fact that she sees growth, satisfaction, and happiness in people around her, where parents and children are so inclined towards doing more. It is like they are getting better at what they are doing, and at the same time enjoying themselves. This drives and motivates Kesha in all the good and not so good times.

Even Covid didn’t deter Kesha, while the pandemic was demotivating people, she realised that if she gets her motivation down, then how will the people be lifted up? Thereby she went on to creating online dance competitions, virtual garba competition, doing free workshops on that, getting the participants dressed up to get them moving around their respective homes.

The idea was so alluring that even sponsors got on board, from contact less delivery to contact less pick up of prize given to participants, this was a hit!

Kesha cannot help but give entire credits to her family for all the hard work and support. She says, “I have taken inspiration from my grandpa, his eyes are always lit up, inquiring about dance classes and enrollments. My entire family is driven with creativity like the virtual Garba competition was my mother’s idea. They are so invested in the dance school; they are constantly there as the backbone support.”

The costumes are sorted by her father and grandpa father, whereas ideas, creativity and management of things are handled by her mother, while her sister and brother are invested in branding of the school. It’s always exciting to do new things.

When further probed on the future of her dance school, without a pause came in the reply – Dance production. Theatrical live dance production is the next goal in Kesha’s mind without any doubt. It would be kind of a level up for her students and everyone associated with the school. The creativity is dripping with passion here, were Kesha is not just brewing this idea but will make this happen at any cost as inferred from the conversation.

One sneak peak of her fiery achievement is the recent series of Khottey Sikkey virtual dance show. The details can be read below.

Blockhouse Bay community centre is the place where you can find Kesha and her Khottey Sikkey. Anyone can join them; you don’t need to have prior knowledge or experience in dancing. All you need is that will to come dance and have fun.

You can visit them on the social media platform or their website for more details (Picture Courtesy – Kottey Sikke Dance School)