Moorestown residents had a night out at Perkins Center for the Arts’ Bollywood style event and concert on July 26.
“I want people to go down with the music to the song that I’m teaching (at the event) and just open your eyes a little bit more and see what’s out there and see what we have to offer,” said Zumba fitness instructor Nadia Neubert, “we meaning the Indian community, have to offer to New Jersey, to Moorestown.”
The night out was part of Perkins’ World Stage Series and included a yoga workshop led by the center’s mind-body artist, Ritu Pandya, and performances led by Neubert and Chaitali (Doonya). Neubert has been performing with Perkins’ World Stage for three years and is glad to see the summer-long event get the recognition it deserves.
“I love what they (Perkins) do with the community,” she noted. “They’re just hitting different communities and different cultures, and bringing communities together…
“It’s a melting pot here.”
Neubert is also the CEO of BollyTrim, a dance fitness company based in New Jersey. She teaches Zumba, Zumba Gold, Zumba Kids and Kids Jr. and Zumba Step. According to her website, she was initiated into Odissi dance – a form from the state of Odisha in eastern India – at the age of 9 in Trinidad and Tobago. Her teacher was Mondira Balkaransingh, of the Nrityanjali Dance Theatre, a disciple of dancer Guru Mayadhar Raut.
Neubert has won awards that included SWAG Icon of India in 2020 and Mrs. Caribbean American Tourism 2021 and 2022. She is a mom of four whose career is in law, but she’s also working on several upcoming projects involving dance, modeling and acting.
“It (teaching dance) opens people’s minds, because it teaches you about different cultures …” she explained. “For instance, in Indian classical dance, it’s very much like mime, like I can tell a story with my hands … In Bollywood dance, whatever they’re saying in the song, we sort of portray that in the movement.”
“A lot of my students, they’re not Indians and they don’t have any dance training in Indian dance,” Neubert added, “so I try to break that and show everybody that you don’t need to be a certain culture to learn to dance.”
She aims to erase borders through dance and uses it as a voice and a lesson to show people how we can learn from each other.
“That’s what I use dance to do, is teach culture,” Neubert pointed out. “It’s like going to a buffet, like an Indian buffet, and you have all these dishes, and you don’t know what they are and then you read what they are. That’s how I do dance; it’s a buffet of dance and this is what you’re getting today.”
Dance keeps Neubert smiling, but it’s also something she uses to help others.
“That’s my crusade right now, is to spread joy, love, community and healing through dance.”
For more information on Neubert, visit https://bollytrim.godaddysites.com or her Facebook page.
