Ashley Lobo Celebrates 20 Years Of ‘The Danceworx’!

Ashley Lobo Celebrates 20 Years Of ‘The Danceworx’!
Ace choreographer and dance visionary Ashley Lobo's ‘The Danceworx’ has set a new milestone as it celebrates 20 years since its inception in 1998. Having begun with just one studio and a 100 students, Ashley Lobo’s ‘The Danceworx’ now has over 18 studios and thousands of students across Delhi, NCR and Mumbai.
 
Ashley Lobo's ‘The Danceworx’ offers training in various dance styles comprising of Jazz, Street Jazz, Classical Ballet, Contemporary Dance, Urban and Funk. The academy also has a Student Repertory Company that consists of hand-picked senior students who follow a special curriculum set by the Artistic Director, and get opportunities to perform, teach and choreograph. Five years ago, The Danceworx set up a professional artistic contemporary dance company, 'Navdhara India Dance Theatre' (NIDT). Today it is one of India’s premier contemporary dance companies, getting international acclaim by making its mark through touring extensively in USA, Canada, South Africa, Germany, Israel, Turkey, China, Bahrain, Taiwan and Mexico.
Ashley who is the Founder and Artistic Director of both ‘The Danceworx’ and ‘Navdhara India Dance Theatre’ says, “The Danceworx’ was the starting point of my vision of international dance in India. The objective was to create an environment where youngsters from India could get a syllabus based dance education that could give them a foundation to pursue dance professionally. Over the last 20 years, we’ve had lots of students that have gone overseas to pursue dance and many are now professional dancers, choreographers, and directors of academies. All this was achieved along with the development of their leadership skills through our philosophy of “helping people find and build themselves and their dance through an environment of fun, love & values”.  I would like to celebrate this milestone with love and gratitude to all who have been part of this special journey. Stepping into the 21st year, the vision is to go even more professional and international, with more international collaborations and influences.”
He further adds, “The focus is to teach students that dance is not limited to steps alone, but includes a wider understanding of self, creativity, movement and physiology. This enables them to create their own work and eventually discover and maybe develop a movement style of their own. Believing in the facilitation of evolving artists, the vision has always been to create a higher awareness and understanding of international dance and to facilitate and help in developing constantly evolving artists.”

Ashley’s choreography work has also recently started making waves overseas. His renowned Prana Paint™ technique has put him on the international map and led to him being regularly invited to teach & choreograph dance companies overseas. In 2017, he created a full-length contemporary dance work with the Ballet Chemnitz in Germany. This year, he created a work with a Polish dance company, Zawirowania Dance Theatre. Next year, he is creating another full-length work for a ballet company in Austria, Landestheatre Linz.

Ashley also been a force in the dance choreography scene in Bollywood. He has choreographed for several Bollywood films in the past including ‘Dhoom’, ‘Jab We Met’, ‘Love Aaj Kal’, ‘Guzaarish’, ‘Cocktail’, ‘Tamasha’, ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’ and ‘Laila Majnu’ among many others. He also appeared in the television space as one of the three judges for the Indian reality dance talent show ‘India's Dancing Superstar’ on Star Plus.

‘The Danceworx’ is regarded as one of India’s top dance institutions today.