Jatin Jok Mehta – West India

Introduction

Jatin Jok Mehta is the First Indian solo boy who started Doing Afro dance in early 2016. he His contribution has also been immense to start Afro-dance in Inia. He is based in Surat in Gujarat state. he belongs to a Brahmin family where Satsang is sung every day. Jatin came to know dance later, but he had a fascination with song since childhood. his Grand Parent (mom’s father) is a Bhajanist his Uncle (mom’s brother) and his mother is also a Bhajanist. so Jatin was first attracted to Afro-music.

Let’s Know Him in Detail:-

Before Start Afro Dance

Before Jatin Jok Mehta started dancing Afro, he used to do open style and his main dance style was hip hop. followed Melvin TimTim most in hip hop dance and tried to dance like him. While Jatin used to watch Melvin’s dance videos all day on YouTube and Facebook. 

Then one day Melvin Tim Tim posted a video on Facebook on the 26th of January 2016. in the video young African boys were dancing wearing tattered shorts and the area was like a slum But seeing the dance steps of that folk and the song played in the dance. he stopped himself for a moment Jatin did not understand what kind of thing this is. what kind of dance is this. what kind of song is this.

he started to enjoy seeing this and he opened this video in YouTube and saw that these Kiddos. then he saw the name of the group of those kids and it was Triplets Ghetto Kids. who are famous all over the world today. And since then Jatin found his happiness in this dance style and African song.

Learning Process

From this day onwards, He started finding the ghetto Kids and other Afro Dancers and Choreographers on YouTube. and he copied and practiced the steps of all the Afro Dancers from YouTube. Then after one or two, he contacted all the Afro dancers on Instagram and He used to send his videos to these people. and ask them if there was any problem with his dance. what next to do. the names of the steps. Where this style come from, by doing that he took the knowledge of basic theory and started putting it into practice.

from International Artists

Then with time, Afro dancers came to India from abroad to teach Afro dance, and Jatin joined their classes. First, he joined the class of Moto Dancers (Dubai). after learning a lot from them, Helen Okoroji came from Nigeria after learning a lot from her. then Yoofi Greene came to India from China but his main place of residence is Ghana. Jatin stayed in Mumbai for four days with Yoofi and did a lot of training. Then again Moto dancers came. And finally, Homebros came to India and Jatin also went to them for training. Along with all this training, learning continued through YouTube and if he did not understand a single thing. He would take the help of all these dancers and ask everything and get the right answer. Sometimes it happens that after all the dancers give different answers. he will collate all the answers and get an answer that is satisfactory to him.

Viral Things

As mentioned above, jatin continued his learning and accepted the challenge of a new song every day. during this time the Kupe song came out by A Star in 2018. and all the Afro dancers of the world were dancing to this song and posting it on Instagram. so what did jatin think? The video was made in such a way that the feeling of the village comes over the song and then this video went viral. That day was a memorable day for Indian Afro-Culture.

All the people of Africa started putting it in the report and story on the main page of Afrodance. like World of Africa TV,  Nwe,  A Star, Chopdaily, world afro dance,  Africa tv,  King Tunde ednut. all these people made this video very viral with a big caption. from this day Jatin got to know people from India and outside the country.

Then He started thinking in this new way and the Afro dancers of the world started appreciating him.

After knowing

After people got to know him, jatin was called for workshops from different places in the country. he used to teach all those places. Jatin’s first Afro dance workshop was held in Mumbai which was organized by Dynamic Dance Crew. then he went to Punjab. , Rajasthan, Mohali, Ahmedabad, Surat, Pune, Lonavala, Delhi, etc. made people aware of Afro-dance by conducting workshops.

Crew Process

Along with this, Jatin also created an Afro dance group which consisted of all boys and named the group Kathiawadi Boyz. all the dancers of this group are from Surat. which currently includes Jatin Mehta, Sam Rajput, Vinayak Barde, Sundar Patel, Ronit Pithadiya, Pritesh Panwala and Mayur Ahuja. And this group of Kathiyawadi boyz has also done a television show to represent Afro dance. they got the top 80 positions in the famous show Dance Plus 5 of Star Plus in 2019. made people aware of Afro dance, and since then Kathiawadi Boyz The showcase continued to perform at various venues and became India’s first Boys Afro Dance Group. 

Jatin’s word:- Satisfaction = Quit. That means if you are satisfied with any kind of training or yourself. you are stuck there, and your growth is also stuck. and this stopping is the same as abandoning or leaving.

Shreya Shetty – West India

Introduction

Shreya Shetty is well known as an Afrogirl Indian from Mumbai. Shreya Shetty has also helped a lot in spreading Afro-dance in India. Shreya has been dancing and training for 12 years. she has learned and trained as many as 15 dance styles. She started her journey of Afro dance back in 2016.

Learning Process

From the little she knew and could understand about this style and culture. she had a life-changing Spiritual experience in 2017. when she got a chance to travel to Johannesburg, South Africa where she trained in Afro-Fusion, Pantsula. and Shreya stayed with local Artists and people where her passion and love for this culture and style grew much stronger and deeper. She says “ I never felt this alive in my life, When I returned I was a new person “.

After coming back

After coming back she has relentlessly self-trained understanding and learning about not only the popular dances but also their Traditional Styles. and pushed beyond her limits to create awareness and spread the love for this style.

In 2022 She founded a production/ curated one-of-a-kind event along with her friend Sipen Chedda Named ‘AfroMicasa’. which means Africa My Home. as an initiative to build an Afro Dance/Music Community in Mumbai and India. along with building an Army of young dancers who she’s training and calls her ‘AfroArmy’.