We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Anuradha Naimpally a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Anuradha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

My two brothers and I had the most amazing parents in terms of support and encouragement of our dreams. Both of them were immigrants from India and struggled for years before they could become financially stable and achieve what they wanted in their own careers; for my mom that was being an occupational therapist and for my dad it was being a mathematician. But both were so involved with the community, teaching cultural and spiritual classes, producing cultural and musical events, and hosting artists in our home. All these experiences contributed to our identity, values, and perspective.

I remember once when I was just a teenager and very early in my dance training, my parents hosted a prominent Indian classical dancer and her husband, who accompanied as the singer, After their incredible performance which left me absolutely mesmerized, I shyly asked her how she got to be so perfect. Her answer has stayed with me till today. She responded saying, “I am not perfect and never will be. I just keep trying.”

Her humility and honesty in that moment has had a lasting impression on me since she was a very well respected and globally recognized artist. Growing up with these kind artists and human beings made a huge impression. Because my parents welcomed role models like this into our home and exposed us to a variety of arts, my life has been filled with amazing experiences and informed me as an artist. They also encouraged us to pursue the arts — or anything — that we were passionate about without any expectations. With parents who themselves were incredible role models, I would say they did a whole lot right!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

As I mentioned most of my childhood was spent in a small Northern Canadian town in a family that was very involved with the arts. My parents encouraged and supported us to pursue our passions–whatever they may be. I learned ballet, jazz, and tap dance at a local dance studio because that was really the only type of dance classes that were available locally. When I was thirteen, we had a teacher from Toronto travel up to our town and teach a group of us bharata natyam dance on alternate weekends. I became enamored with this style and decided to study it seriously.

At age 18, after my freshman year of college, I moved to Mumbai, India for four years to study professionally under master Pt VJ Pillai and his wife, Jayshree Pillai, and their guru, Acharya Parvati Kumar. It became the most immersive experience that was transformative for me at that young age. Bharata natyam is an ancient style of dance which involves rhythmic footwork, hand gestures, facial expressions, and body positions. Symmetrical and geometric patterns set to music are interspersed with human stories and myths. I studied one on one with my gurus and became a part of their family.

After returning to Canada, I completed my undergrad and went on to do my Masters in Dance Ethnology. Soon after, I got married to my husband, Sadu Bajekal, and in 1989, I moved to Austin. I started teaching a few students from the Indian community in my garage and in 1991 founded Austin Dance India. I haven’t looked back since!

Since then, ADI has grown into an organization through which I offer a wide variety of programming. These include arts in education performances and workshops in public schools, museums, libraries, and underserved communities, master classes at universities, and ongoing technique classes that serve primarily South Asian youth and adults. It is an important mission for me to provide South Asian cultural representation in different sectors of education and community.

What I have found most fulfilling through the years of mentoring South Asian girls is that they discover and develop a strong sense of identity and character through the power of dance. They learn about their cultural heritage, mythology, music, rhythm, values, and so much more as they delve deeper into the art. This metamorphosis during their growth is one of the most wonderful experiences for me as a teacher.

As an individual artist I collaborate with many different artists and create projects on various topics that include LBGTQIA+ issues, social justice, climate change, human displacement, and more. I am passionate about bringing awareness to some of the complex issues that face our communities through social practice programs as well as connecting them with ancient mythologies to bring deeper context. I strive to bring my best to any projects that I undertake.

In addition to dance, I am a certified yoga instructor and certified Integrative Health and Wellness Coach. I integrate elements of these into my dance classes and also offer programs and coaching for women who want to age with vitality. I include modalities such as yoga, movement, energy and mindfulness work, and ayurveda.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Back when I was starting out as an independent artist, I didn’t really have any sort of plan–short term or long term. I just wanted to dance through performing, touring, collaborating, and teaching. I really had NO idea that even in this kind of situation, you are actually running a business. It is an art business! This concept was not even on my radar when I was trying to establish myself in my 20’s. I took it one day at a time, created some print materials (yes, this was pre-internet!!), to send out, called people, and basically hustled to get gigs. I did quite a few free appearances and projects to establish my work within the Austin community since I was a newcomer to the scene.

As I look back on those days, I really had no idea of how to set goals for my career, budget for projects, create a network, write contracts, or price myself with presenters. In the past few decades, I underwent trainings that are focused on the business side of art practice. As I went through the exercises and developed my mission statement, updated my resume, created short and long term goals, budgets, and contracts, I realized that although I had learned how to do these tasks over the years out of necessity, I didn’t really have a system in place nor was I doing many of them well!

I think many artists, like myself, focus so much on our art practice, we really don’t ever think about the importance of the business side of it. In the artist world, there is often a prevalent notion of “selling out” if you are too “business minded”. But I have learned the hard way that if we really want our work to be shared with wider reach, it makes sense to put all these systems in place so that we can do that efficiently! If I had access to such resources earlier in my career, I think my mindset would have been different as I developed my career.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think to build a reputation you need consistency, whether it is a good or bad one. If people I interact with on a regular basis continue to see a particular kind of behavior from me then it reinforces that reputation. As an artist, I am not in a workplace environment with the same people everyday except in my classes where I often see students and families for a period of years. Most projects are short term partnerships for which collaborators are sought out. So I try to be consistently professional in my interactions.

I have tried to be prepared, be professional, and be easy to work with. In some instances I ended up with a project solely on the basis of being ready with some resources that were needed quickly by the organizer, like a resume and headshot. Or when a project is underway, showing up on time, having done whatever is needed is important to be a useful contributor who will receive call backs from artists or presenters.

And finally, being easy to work with is probably one of the most important factors. On several occasions even in my own projects, I have called on artists who are very good but may not be the best only because they are easy to work with and will be team players. People prefer to work with individuals who can be flexible and work well with others. Personally, I think all these things go a long way in building a good reputation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.austindanceindia.com
• Instagram: @anudances
• Facebook: Anuradha Naimpally, Austin Dance India
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anuradha-naimpally-751808127/
• Youtube: Austin Dance India

Image Credits

Photo credit: Sadu Bajekal, John Langford