Dancing dadi: Age is Just a Number

The saying 'Age is just a number, and your talent will never fail you. It has no expiry date', goes well with the journey behind the viral dancing dadi.

Ravi Bala Sharma, is known as the dancing dadi on Instagram hails from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. She comes from a family with music background and was always inclined towards music. Bala shares, "My father was a musician and I have learnt from him vocal and instrumental i.e., tabla. Dance has always been my hobby. I have learned the basics of Kathak and used to perform during the family functions. After I got married, I opened a small music coaching center. During the same, I applied for a government teachers job and was appointed as a music teacher in Delhi Government School in 1993 and got retired in 2019. My son who is an actor leaves in Mumbai. After the death of my husband, I came here in Mumbai to stay with my son. Since it was a new place, had my own difficulties. That was when I started making these videos."

Though dance was a passion for her since childhood, it had to take a backseat as the focus shifted to her career and family. During her childhood days, she always wanted to get into acting like Hema Malini and Madhuri Dixit. However, the family that she belonged to, this was not possible as her dad who was the only bread owner had to look after all her brother and sisters.

"For the last 30 years, family and career have been my priorities. But now that I am retired, I thought it was time to revisit my passion. Lockdown was a turning point in my life where I made my first video and that got viral. After this my kids also started motivating me to make such videos where I could show my love for dance through the 30-seconds video," shares the mother of two.

Making these dance videos was never a part of the list that Bala wanted to do. It was during an online competition when she uploaded her first ever dance video which went viral. Bala as of now has around 128k followers on her Instagram.

She adds, "I never knew that there would be such a huge positive response on my video. Since viewers liked what they saw of a childhood passion, I thought why not make the most of it? That's when I decided to make more videos. My kids also motivated me to go ahead and follow what my heart says."

Her videos have not only won hearts of her fans but also celebrities such as singer and actor Diljith Dosanjh, Bollywood choreographer Terence Lewis and filmmaker Imtiaz Ali. For Bala it was a dream come true to receive compliments, loving and sharing her videos on social media. She believes that never in her dreams, she thought that such huge personalities would share her video on their Instagram page.

"This moment was the biggest and unexpected award in my life. I think I have proved that age is just a number and you can get recognition at any stage of your life," she adds.

For Bala, dancing is a way to stay fit both mentally and physically. She believes that it is very important to have a positive attitude in life, especially for those who are in their 60+. Reiterating that age shouldn't set a bar to what one can achieve, the 62-year-old believes one should be at liberty to pursue whatever makes them happy

"Most people of my age talk about joint pains, cholesterol and many other age-related diseases. I think having a positive outlook is the key to fighting such ailments. Be it drawing, painting, or cooking, doing what you have a passion for is such an enriching experience. For many people, I am a source of motivation, a 'Rockstar Daadi'. Hearing such comments is a fulfilment in itself. There might be people who think that I have always been happy and things have always been easy for me. That's not true. I have faced my share of hardships and had to overcome them. To that end, my passion, my dancing helped a lot," ends Rockstar Dadi.