Ruchi Pushkarna
A pioneer and trendsetter of bhangra cardio workout in Delhi – since January 2012 Ruchi has expertise in various forms such as Bhangra, Bollywood, Contemporary, Belly Dancing, Pilates, Yoga, Jazz and Bharatnatyam. A staunch believer of ‘following your heart’ philosophy – Ruchi derives utmost satisfaction in guiding people to find their own self and passion.
Ruchi Pushkarna worked in the corporate world as a programmer for 6 years in New York City while continuing her passion for expanding her Dance and fitness vocabulary by studying core strengthening Pilates and various dance forms such as Ballet, Jazz with Heather Culton (New York) and Belly dance with Nourhan Sharif (New York). She took up Bollywood and Bhangra folk professionally by training rigorously under Pooja Narang (student of Shiamak Davar and Saroj Khan) of Bollywood Axion fame, New York City and got invited to join her professional troupe within a period of 6 months. She performed profusely with the troupe for 3 years while continuing her demanding weekday jobs as a programmer at finance firms like Goldman Sachs and Ziff brother investments.
After spending 12 rewarding years in USA, in January of 2010 she made a conscious decision to move back to India, to fulfill her dream of working directly with under privileged sections and diving full on into Indian psyche and culture. As soon as she landed in India she got an offer from Lourd Vijay Dance school, Bangalore to teach Bollywood in Chennai. She taught and organized Bollywood section of LVDS Spirit of Dance festival and got featured on NDTV. Meanwhile she learnt Salsa, Jive and Cha Cha Cha from Arun Srinivasan an extremely talented trainer at LVDS, Chennai. At the end of 2010, back in home town Delhi she started learning Bharatnatyam at Bhartiya Kala Kendra with Justin McCarthy and at the same time continued her belly dance education with the revolutionizing Meher Malik’s Banjara school of Dance. Her dreams were finally given a concrete shape in 2011 when she brought her life experiences, Dance training, academic training and passion to teach together and started her own Dance institute “Dancend” that imparts her love of Dance and its therapeutic effects to people. Ruchi Pushkarna sthas been a trendsetter in promoting Bhangra and Bollywood classes in Delhi through innovative choreography and fun curricula. Ruchi trains currently in Bharatnatyam under Guru Rashmi Khanna (Kalyani Kala Mandir) for her own soul and spirit! She also trains under Raja Anand in advanced contemporary.
Ruchi has performed in cultural shows in the US as part of a Bhangra and Bollywood troupe from 2007 to 2010. Ruchi has performed at several prestigious platforms with notable showcases at Premio Lo Nuestra (Latin Grammys), premiere of Slumdog Millionaire, Golda Meir Fashion Arts Week to name a few.
Ruchi and her team has conducted Bhangra and Bollywood Bhangra workshops in Delhi at different venues and also in Europe – Lausanne, Switzerland (June 2017); Furth, Germany (June, 2014) Furth, Munich(Germany October 2017). She also organizes Bollywood/Bhangra workshops for expatriates often in Delhi.