In this episode of Pod de Deux podcast, Clara and Jessica sat down with dancer, curator and Bollywood choreographer, Pooja Uberoi. Pooja shared how Bollywood has changed over recent years to incorporate a range of styles including Indian classical dance, jazz, and hip-hop. She is organizing this year’s New York City Dance Week, a 10-day dance festival that partners with studios across NYC to give back to the community. Pooja also curates Funkar (Urdu for “artist within you”), a performance night of diverse contemporary and traditional dance that takes place every month at Dixon place. Pooja talked about her passion for helping artists find a platform, which led her to start Artists East West in 2018 to represent Indian artists abroad. Jessica and Clara also asked her about the dance form she developed, BollyJazz, which combines Bollywood and Jazz. You can find Pooja and Bollyjazz at multiple studios throughout NYC. Finally, Pooja talked about IkiGAI – USA, a multifaceted company that works with artists to help them monetize and make money from various crafts.

Pooja Uberoi is the Producer for NYC Dance Week and founder of Funkar, an initiative that is part of NYC Dance Week. She has more than 13 Years of experience as a dancer and teacher in Jazz schools, the Bollywood industry in Mumbai, India and New York City. She was a Board member and Head of The Dance Works, one of the biggest dance schools of Western dance in India before moving to NYC. Pooja has performed her choreographies and taught at the prestigious CBS this morning, Dance USA Dance and in schools in India, New York City, California, Canada, Puerto Rico, Israel and Mexico. Pooja also owns a dance company in New York named IkIGAI – USA. She is also a consultant for a music school and runs an international artist management company called Artists East West.