Masala Bhangra: Fitness Dancing

Sarina Jain created Masala Bhangra
Sarina Jain created Masala Bhangra

Masala Bhangra: A Cross-Cultural Fitness Craze

Sarina Jain. David Heisler photo.
Sarina Jain. David Heisler photo.

By Eleanor Harte

In 1999, Sarina Jain introduced a new dance style to the world: Masala Bhangra. 15 years later, she travels the world for work, training instructors in the Indian-style celebratory fitness dancing that she created.

In her years of travel, she’s seen the differences in attitudes toward fitness across the world, and has been able to share her culture and change lives in the process.

Her dance classes are held in twenty countries. She has created 12 different workout videos, which can easily be downloaded from the internet.

She has made a name for herself and for Indian-inspired fitness across the globe, and she only plans to continue.

First Generation American

While she was growing up as a first generation American, Sarina was always exposed to her parents’ Indian culture. She grew up in California surrounded by an Indian community.

“I never felt that I was lacking in knowing about Indian culture,” she said, “and I always loved it.”

Her father especially raised Sarina and her sister to be very proud of being Indian-American, a sentiment she still carries with her today, in her work and in her personal life.

“He was always telling me to be proud of being Indian but he was very proud of being American too, because here we had opportunities we couldn’t have had in India,” she said.

She said that her father would be immensely proud of the fact that she now spends every day sharing Indian culture through fitness and using it to make peoples’ lives better.

“My dad was such a different character in terms of culture,” said Jain, describing her father as very passionate about the best parts of Indian culture and the best parts of American culture.

She has taken those two aspects of culture – the traditional Indian and the modern American – and combined them into a dance series that’s taken over the globe.

Cross-Cultural Fitness

Masala Bhangra is a cross-cultural dance that combines Bollywood-style moves with Bhangra, a traditionally masculine Indian dance. There are 500 Masala Bhangra teachers, called ambassadors, in twenty countries, with more discovering the style and becoming certified each year.

The classes feature an instructor at the front of the room and a group of students who follow along with the moves. It’s a high-energy class with constant motion that’s designed for people of all ages and all fitness levels.

Anyone can participate, whether they’ve had dance training or not.

You don’t need to be a perfect dancer or even know any of the moves. You just need to be willing to follow along with a positive spirit.

Masala Bhangra ambassadors pass on Indian culture through their classes in a cultural-driven program. Jain compared someone making the decision to teach her classes to instructors who fall in love with the culture of yoga and learn to teach it.

Jain described it like the dances that are performed at Indian weddings. “Pretend you’re going to be doing these moves at an Indian wedding,” she said, “and picture that.”

“You really have to love the culture in order to teach it,” she said.

International Fitness

Jain was the first to introduce Indian dance to the global fitness industry, and she has been incredibly well received in doing so.

She teaches classes twice weekly at the famous Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City, and recently spent five weeks traveling to six countries to share Masala Bhangra and certify more ambassadors.

“Traveling has taught me to grow my business slowly but surely,” said Jain. “I’m not a one time wonder. I’m in this for the long haul.”

One of the countries she visited on that five-week trip was Bali, where Jain got a firsthand look at the way her fitness program impacts people across countries.

Masala Bhangra. Amardeep Singh Nagi photo.Masala Bhangra. Amardeep Singh Nagi photo.At the Bali Spirit Festival, which annually celebrates yoga, music and dance and brings together people from around the globe, Jain taught some classes.

“In Bali, people don’t really work out,” she said, “and most of the attendees are international, from Australia and places like that.

But many of the locals who worked at the festival all made an effort to at least attend my session once, which was interesting to the organizers because they usually don’t attend other sessions.”

But it isn’t just in Bali that Jain has had an effect. She has hard from people all over the world about the impact she made on them with her fitness program, and to hear that it impacts more than just their fitness routine gives her joy.

“Someone will email me and say that I motivated them at that one session in Bali to get up and do something with their life, she said. “It is empowering to make a difference in these peoples’ world.”

Kuwait Fitness

Jain has found that in the years she has been traveling, countries are stepping up more as fitness is concerned. In Kuwait, for example, she has held classes where she finds that women are making fitness a much bigger priority than they did even five years ago.

“Women have taken on fitness to be a much bigger part of life,” she said. “It’s an outlet to let loose for an hour before going back to the hard job of being a mother and taking care of their families.”

In India, fitness is booming even in just the past two years. “There are female body building contests, which is wild because I’ve never seen anything like that before,” said Jain. “It’s becoming more of a lifestyle there.”

Masala Bhangra is for anyone, male or female, but women are standing out to Jain more, especially recently. “They want to look good too, and to go back to the same place year after year and see how attitudes are changing and how people are losing weight, it’s like a transformation.”

Sarina Jain travels the world training Masala Bhangra ambassadors and teaching classes. David Heisler photo.Sarina Jain travels the world training Masala Bhangra ambassadors and teaching classes. David Heisler photo.

Jain’s father has been a huge inspiration to her, not just in the sense of sharing Indian culture with her but also in regards to the rest of her life.

“My dad always told me to make sure that I was able to stand on my own two feet before I did anything. He told me that I should find my way instead of relying on other people.”

When her father passed away at age 47 from a heart attack, it was a wake up call. “I realized you don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow,” she said. Jain’s fitness program is for him, and she has followed his advice by pioneering this program across the globe and making a name for herself while doing so.

‘It’s Like a High for Me’

Though she acknowledged the travel aspect of her job can at times be grueling, mostly related to the time zones, she said it is the source of her biggest joy.

“Watching people learn this is like a high for me. It is a joy to watch my ambassadors pass this culture on. It warms my heart,” she said.

It does not always make everyone happy. There have overwhelmingly been people happy to see what she is doing and who have been changed by it. But there are also a few naysayers. Jain has encountered protestors, some of whom think that what she is doing is wrong. Bhangra is a traditionally male dance, and not everyone likes that women are doing it.

But Jain sees her critics as a perseverance to push forward. “When you want to quit, that’s when you know you’re doing something right,” she said.

“I will die knowing I made a difference in people’s lives, and that keeps me going.”

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