Minila Shah: How Dance Helps Students Find Culture, Confidence, and Connection

What can students learn through dance that they may not learn sitting at a desk?

In this episode of Have a Life Teaching, John Schembari talks with Minila Shah, founder of Ajna Dance Company, about the role dance and the performing arts can play in helping young people experience culture, develop confidence, express themselves, and connect with others.

Minila shares her own journey from learning Bharatanatyam as a child growing up in Canada to eventually founding Ajna Dance Company in New York. Today, Ajna brings South Asian dance into schools, libraries, museums, community organizations, and other spaces throughout the New York metropolitan area and beyond.

John and Minila explore why Indian dance isn't a monolith, looking at the enormous diversity of classical, folk, and Bollywood-influenced traditions across India. They also discuss how dance can give students an accessible entry point into cultures that may initially be unfamiliar to them.

The conversation goes beyond cultural learning. Minila explains how dance can help students develop confidence, teamwork, creativity, physical awareness, social-emotional expression, and the ability to be fully present—particularly important at a time when young people spend so much of their lives looking at screens.

They also discuss:

• Why movement and music may be fundamental forms of human expression
• How Ajna makes South Asian dance accessible to students of different ages, abilities, and backgrounds
• The growing recognition of Diwali and Holi in American schools
• Differences among classical Indian dance, regional folk traditions, and Bollywood dance
• How dance can become a form of storytelling
• The role of live music and powerful rhythms
• How Ajna's multi-week school residencies culminate in student performances
• Ways dance instruction changes from elementary school through high school
• Exploring social justice, migration, and the South Asian diaspora through movement
• Why arts education can help students see cultural differences as something to explore rather than fear
• What Minila has learned from building a culturally focused arts organization

Ultimately, the conversation raises a larger question for educators: If education is supposed to prepare students for a meaningful life, shouldn't we make room for the experiences that help make life meaningful?

As Minila argues, art can create a human connection across cultures by helping young people discover that beneath our different traditions, languages, music, and movements, we have much more in common than we sometimes realize.

Learn more about Minila Shah and Ajna Dance Company:
Ajna Dance Company