International Award-winning multi-hyphenated artist Joya Nandy Kazi wears multiple hats, from being a choreographer and actress to an educator. Joya, who recently made it to the news once again for her choreography in Never Have I Ever season 4, takes The Pioneer on an exclusive journey of her formative years and achievements.
Tejal Sinha
No matter where they go, Indians are always Indians at heart! We’ve heard this a lot of times, didn’t we? But today, we bring to you our interaction with Joya Nandy Kazi, who is currently based in Los Angeles. However, her inclination towards Indian art and culture has made her one of the most sought-after choreographers in Hollywood.
Well, let’s take you to the flashback of her journey! Growing up, Joya had always had an affinity for music, rhythm, and dance. How could she not? There wasn’t a single day in her house when her parents didn’t play the music of Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, R.D. Burman, Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Elvis, out of the many. The moment that she really got captivated by Indian classical music was when, for the first time, she saw an Odissi dancer performing in Michael Jackson’s Black-and-White music video on MTV. It’s surely going to be safe to say that the majority of us have been smitten with Michael Jackson every time we’ve seen him perform. Humorously, she recalled, “I thought if I could dance like the Odissi dancer whom I saw in the video, I could marry Michael Jackson and travel the world with him (she laughs out loud.) I immediately told my mom about the dancer and my desire to dance like her. Within a few days, my mom found a very amazing Odissi dance teacher.”
You’d not believe it when we say that she was just three years old when this happened. And as she turned four, her dance journey began. Odissi being the first dance form that she learned, she went on to learn Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Manipuri, and Kathakali as well. Apart from studying Indian classical dances, Joya has also studied Hindustani classical music singing and instruments, including Guitar, Tabla, Flute, Violin, and Piano. She was also a member of the school band. So, this surely sums up that music, art, and dance have always been huge parts of her life.
Later, as she turned 12, she knew that she’d want to become a choreographer. And so she requested that her gurus let her assist them so she could hone her skills. At the age of 16, she started her own studio, and she said, “Dance was always my one and only plan. I didn’t have a plan or a plan B because I thought if I had a Plan B, I wouldn’t be able to put 100 percent into either of the plans. I was very focused on joining the entertainment industry here.”
However, while she was in her dance programme in college, she understood there was no positive representation of South Asians, Indians, or Indian culture, especially in dance. “Our Indian culture is so rich and beautiful, and I wanted to showcase it. That’s when I changed my passion into having a very specific purpose, which was to elevate Indian dance culture in the West. That’s how I kind of started to make the shift towards figuring out how to bridge the Indian classical forms of the East with the Western commercial forms in Hollywood. I relaunched my company as Joya Kazi Entertainment in Los Angeles,” added the charming dancer, who is taking Indianness to global platforms.
With no opportunities initially, Joya faced her own challenges. Doing something no one ever thought of, she was creating all of the opportunities on her own and, in fact, pitching them to the directors of films and music videos to create opportunities for not only herself but also the dancers of her company. She shared, “The opportunities were always very few and far between. I wanted to show that Indian dance and art can be as commercial as Western art styles and can also create great work here in the West.”
It was around 2017, when she came back to India for the first time and participated in Star Plus’s Dance+ Season 3, under the mentorship of renowned choreographer Punit Pathak. Her love and passion for the arts gave her the opportunity to work with Allu Arjun in Naa Peru Surya, Naa Illu India. She further performed for the IIFA Awards with Madhuri Dixit, Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Siddharth Malhotra, Ranveer Singh, Amrita Rao, and many more from the industry. She has also worked on screen as well as in studio training with actors like Jacqueline Fernandez and Avantika Vandanapu, and has choreographed and done a lot of artist training for singers such as Rajakumari, Benny Dayal, AR Rahman, Gippy Grewal, Nick Cannon, Antonio Brown, and many more. The dancer is happy to be able to exercise so many different skills, perform, and put on so many hats.
If you’ve been a fan of Netflix’s series Never Have I Ever, you surely would have seen Joya dancing so gracefully in season one. In episode four of season one, Joya not only choreographed the Nagada Sang Dhol performance but also made her on-screen presence as Preeti in gorgeous, authentic Indian formalwear. And surely one cannot forget about the way the mudras were executed. One word: “BANG ON!”
“After over a decade of going from directors to production houses and pitching ideas, it was then that I got a call about whether I was interested in making it to the show. I did go in initially just as a try and to help with casting and virtual processes. But I got an email saying that the writer would love to have you on screen as well. I felt like I was juggling way too many responsibilities, but you know, I believe that when the universe offers you incredible opportunities, it’s because it’s time for you to level up, and it’s a challenge that you definitely can’t take on. I am really glad that I stepped up to the plate and was able to be a part of such an iconic and historical scene,” shared Joya, who is also exploring and looking forward to what she can do as an actress and trying to push and challenge herself.
She has been the talk of the town for quite a while for her choreography in the iconic song Saami Saami from Pushpa: The Rise. Well, so much so that Rasmika Mandanna herself appreciated the performance.
“The amount of love that we’ve been receiving has been incredible. It was a no-brainer to come back for season four, of course. The producer sent me a message saying, ‘It just makes sense to bring you back for the very last season’. We wanted to include a song that was Tamil considering Devi’s family is Tamil, and it just makes sense that Saami Saami was a part of a long list of options. We had to find something that had a female lead vocalist in it and that was popular and people enjoyed. Both Maitreyi and Richa had worked so hard in the amount of rehearsal time that was given. As creators of Behind the Show, we were for the very first time able to bring a Tollywood song to American television. We wanted to also pay tribute to the Global appeal of Saami Saami as India has so many different film industries and languages, and especially here in the West, we wanted to make sure that we showcased as many of these as possible in an American television show. So it’s a great accomplishment for all of us to be able to have both Hindi and Tamil songs in this TV show,” concluded the dancer.
