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Meet Trailblazer Kinjal Kurani

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Kinjal Kurani.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Kinjal. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I moved to the United States when I was sixteen and was enrolled into junior year of high school as soon as I moved. At that age, all I wanted to do was have fun and be around with my friends. However, I started feeling lonely as I had no idea that making friends here would be so hard. I had no social group of my own except for my family for up-to a year.

So I decided on continuing my hobby which was dance. I am trained in “Bharatnatyam” which is a traditional dance form from India for about eight years and I am also extremely passionate about Bollywood Dance. I started creating my own choreographies at the age of ten, and Bollywood dance was something I always wanted to explore. I started looking up dance classes because I really wanted to continue my hobby and stay busy. As I was looking up classes, I came across an opportunity to be a dance instructor. It was a fairly new academy that was looking to hire someone to help out with teaching dance. At first, I thought I am not even qualified to be an instructor, but I was lucky to have supporting parents who pushed me to look into it.

The owner of the academy was very impressed by my dance background and wanted me to start teaching as soon as possible. I started out with teaching beginner adults; eventually I helped out with performances, private events, different age groups and even coming up with business ideas. After teaching for two and a half years, I realized dance is something that turned into my passion. I really wanted to continue to teach, learn different dance styles and push my limits when it came to creating new choreographies.

However, as I was working for someone else, I had certain restrictions and had to follow protocols when it came to teaching dance or implementing new choreographies. So there was only so much I could do. That was the moment I created my own performance group out of creative desperation and signed up to perform at one of the year’s biggest events. With the help of my dance colleagues, the choreography came together really well and it was titled “Masti Ki Paathshala.” (School of fun). This piece was very close to my heart as it reflects upon my high school journey in India.

For that performance, we trained 12 dancers for two and a half months at no cost, some of which were non-dancers. As we got closer to the show, we found out that we had to come up with a group name, that’s when my dance colleague and I sat together at a Starbucks and came up with the name “Andaaz” which means Style. A moment after the performance, we started getting requests for dance classes. Some wanted to enroll themselves or their kids to learn our dance styles and I was just overwhelmed by the response. I had no idea that an eight-minute performance will take me on a completely different journey that will change my life forever.

I founded Andaaz when I was 20 years old and today, we are running over 16 dance classes, a YouTube Channel with over 6.5 Million views and 22000 subscribers and an approximate total of over 60 performances. All of this in the last three years, and all of which would have not been possible without the undying support from everyone. I came up with this performance just for creative satisfaction and had no idea that one day it would turn into a profitable institution.

Has it been a smooth road?
Starting a business at a young age is never easy. At least, it has not been for me. When I first started to work with my partners, they had way more professional experience as they were much older to me. I was working with people who had full-time jobs with a secure payroll. And here I was with a little hope of making a living out of Andaaz. I would say it was quite intimidating. Living in today’s society, it could be challenging to be a young teacher or an entrepreneur. I thought I could be judged very quickly. Many assumptions were made based on my age. There was very little room for me to make mistakes because there was so much at stake. Most of which was related to working with kids of all ages, meeting the expectations of the parents, delivering quality education and working with other creative artists.

Back in 2019, this business did not only change my life professionally, it also affected me personally. There was a time when I used to consider my colleague a really good friend. But eventually, as time passed by, I found out that I was just an opportunity to them. As soon as I was not profitable to them, they shut their doors on me. This completely changed my social life. I lost many friends and trust in people at the same time. That was also the moment when I started having self-doubts and confidence issues. After a while my business was also threatened and defamed by the same friends. Had I ever faced such issues? No. Did I know how to handle it? Certainly not. Did I want to give up my business? Absolutely not. All I knew was that I need to protect what I love to do and I can’t let my emotions take over my business.
Every Sunday, I walked into the studio with a big smile to deliver my best work. Clients tend to recognize and value the quality of your work. Organic and loyal clients will always stick around; that’s just the beauty of a business. At the end, I was relieved that Andaaz did not get affected and the next time when I am in that situation, I would exactly know what to do. It’s easy to trust people when you are young. Sometimes it’s for good reasons and sometimes it’s just a learning curve. I learnt to differentiate between my personal and professional life; however, my struggles did not end there.

My biggest struggle was coping up with workload and stress. Last year, I got diagnosed with persistent asthma and it became extremely challenging for me to cope up with stress and physical exertion. I started having trouble dancing as I was getting sick a lot. Fortunately, I was able to get help from an extremely talented business partner and instructors who taught the dance classes while I was learning how to manage my asthma with work. I am still in the process of figuring out how to cope up with stress and work with asthma. Yes, our work is important but we need to listen to our bodies and take care of ourselves when needed. I believe, struggle is a small part of entrepreneurship.
I have treated my business like it’s my baby. Having a business at a young age is a commitment. I did not get to party or relax every Saturday night. Yet I would do anything to protect it. I have faced challenges like social rejection, age stereotypes, criticism, finding the right people to work with, dealing with stress & self-doubt and also bringing more clients inside the door.

My advice to young aspiring entrepreneurs, especially young women, is to be patient. Don’t go too big too soon, make the best out of your process. Take calculated risks or decisions. Learn how to deal with stress and anxiety because it’s just the nature of a business. Find a balance between personal and your professional life. More importantly, believe in yourself. It’s easy to doubt yourself when there are so many eyes on you, but at the end you have to make your own path. If something is not working out, remember there are millions of resources out there, just make sure you are identifying them. The best part about being an entrepreneur is that you don’t have to wait for an opportunity, you can just create one.

We’d love to hear more about Andaaz Dance Academy.
Andaaz is extremely diverse with a progressive perspective. We cater to all age groups and genders. Andaaz as a brand is really proud of providing various different dance forms with quality training. I and my whole team of instructors also like to constantly train ourselves to stay refined and updated with different dance styles in order for us to give quality training. We also manage to incorporate western/urban dance forms while retaining our Indian culture. Andaaz is not just a profitable business, it’s our passion and pride and that really sets us apart from others.

So much of the media coverage is focused on the challenges facing women today, but what about the opportunities? Do you feel there are any opportunities that women are particularly well positioned for?
Women today are not ready to settle for less and I don’t think we should pick any other way. I meet very empowering women through my work and it’s intriguing to see that they are never ready to give up.

However, it’s been a constant fight for women to find equal opportunities, but there are opportunities out there that are underrated. Most of my female friends & family are STEM majors with very well paid jobs. They are either engineers, lawyers, doctors or researchers. Take our academy for instance majority of our employees are very empowering women of different age groups. Most of my clients are also women. Women in the United States have a huge economic power and they provide consumer perception. There are enormous opportunities out there for women that provide consumer insights. There are also progressing companies that have made gender-equality as their policy and they are very happy to provide women with well-positioned opportunities. If nothing seems to be working out, I would recommend women to be their own boss. It’s the best way to pay yourself and choose the way you want to work.

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Image Credit:
Gautam Naidu Photography
Monish Thakore

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