Today’s post comes from a newly trainer instructor, Revathi! Her story with body empowerment comes from a heartfelt experience that could not have been easy to deal with. Read more about this rockstar instructor and her experience with body empowerment!

I have been dancing since I was 6. I used to be a part of every cultural activity that took place: be it in school, be it in college, be it at the corporate office – all back in India! Dance never left me and I always kept it in my life. I always learned something new in dance: contemporary, belly dance, salsa, a little Classical. To this day, I still keep exploring.

Being a Fitness Instructor was never on my bucket list – but being a dancer was.  When I came across BollyX for the first time, I was at a stage of my life where I was battling PTSD. Things were piling up around me and I decided to visit India alone for a chance to breathe freely.

That’s when I started Zumba for a change and I loved it! When I came back to the US, I joined a nearby studio and continued dancing. It really felt good – for that one hour I was totally myself. But I always missed Indian dance.

Then out of the blue, my Zumba Instructor, Amy Perez, shared BollyX on her webpage and it listed “Instructor Certification.” The company sounded Indian, and when I clicked through to find out more, I saw that BollyX was based on Bollywood – the largest entertainment industry of India! I looked at the page a few times, but ignored it.

Later Amy told me, “It’s Indian dance-based. Why don’t you try it? You’ve got authentic Indian moves and it would be fun adding you to my studio.” It really felt good that someone was believing in me and I knew I could do it.

While I was attending my first BollyX class, I listened to songs I knew and started dancing. Before I knew it, I was dancing like no one was watching!

Just a week after I went through training, people started asking me to start teaching regular classes. They had liked a few songs I showed them after training and so I started getting busy. The only three things I did were: practice, prep, and dance! Dancing to Bollywood music and revisiting Indian culture brought back the smile on my face.

Now my days are all about music, dance and working out! I am eating better because I need the stamina to teach classes. I am sleeping well because BollyX is a great workout. My fake mask dropped and I’ve started smiling and laughing from the heart again. I never thought I could dance so much in a day, but thanks to BollyX, I turned out to be stronger than I thought I was.