We recently connected with Shrreya Sharrma and have shared our conversation below.

Shrreya, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Belly dancing has long been a taboo in our society. Now imagine a middle-aged woman, from and married into a indian traditional household, weighs much more than your average dancer starts to show up on internet wearing nothing more than a belly dancing dress consisting of colorful bra and a slit skirt, things start to get interesting to say the least. I honestly don’t think I would have even started dancing if Covid would not have hit. I thought at that time the world was going to end, little did I know, my world was going to change.
Even after a year or posting belly dance videos, the online as well as offline comments from people continue to be painful, but what was really hurful were the internal insults I used to give my body. On top of that, my full time job started to suffer as I truly was no more focused on how to make a rich company richer.
Slowly, but surely, all the internal and external comments faded in the joyous sound of my many belly dance coin belts. So yes, there were many many risks that were involved in this taking this one rebellion, but the rewards, raves and radiance were all worth it at the end.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Shrreya is a professional belly dancer from India, currently based in Seattle. She started this journey 2 years ago when she hopelessly fell in love with this dance form.

An extensive background in many Indian classical and folk dance forms as well as Bollywood has given her a solid base on which she has built her own artistic dance style integrating her Indian roots with Arabic wings.

Shrreya has been enjoying teaching a uniquely crafted curriculum that fuses Bollywood with Belly dance in a way that makes it easy and fun for anyone to try out this beautiful dance style.

Aside from teaching, Shrreya also creates Bolly-Belly content and performs both online and offline under her handle “Shimmy by Sharma”.

She is driven by her mission of creating body positivity & self-acceptance and is here today to celebrate our glowing and ever growing Seattle dance community.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Yes I do and I am glad you asked. I started this dance form in Covid only because I thought the world was going to end and this might be my last chance to do all the things I have not so far due to many insecurities and fears. All my body image issues, societal judgements, trolls etc. kept me away from truly expressing myself. Every-time I saw a dancer, let alone a belly dancer, where you use your entire body to move, not just limbs, I couldn’t relate to their shape, age, color, race etc. I started out very hesitatingly, but in no time, the dance helped me overcome a lot of the walls I had out on myself. Now, 3 years since I started, I feel very comfortable dancing my heart out inspite of so many external critiques, all because my inner critique is silent, confronted and most importantly happy.

How did you build your audience on social media?

It might be a controversial opinion, but I believe we have given Social media way too much importance that it deserves. Yes, it is a powerful tool and platform for marketing and genuinely helps in creating a good brand for oneself. However, for artists, success means much more than increasing your follower count on a platform. All that said, if we do understand all that, success on social media doesn’t remain a matter of numbers, but about trying to convey your message in a way that works for you without caring about constantly changing algorithms and trends. So, just dance and do your thing, and share what feels good and right for that artist inside of you. This ensures no burnouts and pressures that come from chasing the conventional success on social media.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shimmybysharma
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083671934894
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfgzvQqmjjo6FmWeWcvohlg
• Other: Threads: https://www.threads.net/@shimmybysharma

Image Credits
That Couple In Love Photography www.thatcoupleinlove.com