Today we’d like to introduce you to Sneha Dama.
Hi Sneha, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
They say “it’s never too late to start” and while that phrase can come across as a far stretch at first, it truly is never too late when you actually just START!
Dancing has always been my passion ever since I was 6 years old. Attending classes and receiving training from some of Houston’s talented instructors in the South Asian Community has always been an experience I will truly cherish. I would like to give a special thanks to Mrs. Shiva Mathur and Mrs. Arzan Gonda for introducing dance into my life and all the opportunites that you both have provided in my dance journey! Throughout my educational career, I’ve always kept dance alive as well. It was my outlet to express myself – in good times and bad. Therefore, it makes sense that I should pursue a career in dance, right?
Well, I didn’t initially think that way back then. I dabbled in various careers once I graduated but all those options never felt like they truly made me happy. After spending a few years figuring out what I really wanted to do, I went back to the thing that I would always resort to – Dance. I wondered if this could have such a huge impact on me, imagine what it could do for others. I started thinking of various ideas and as one idea lead to the next – Voila! We have Sunrise Dance!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It was October 2019 when I decided to officially launch my business. I was still trying to get into the groove of things – figuring out how to stand out, what specific niche I should attract or how I could get my name out there. After a few months, the pandemic hit – and as we all are aware, it had impacted everyone around the world. Everyone had to create a new norm for themselves and processed the situation in their respective ways. For myself, being idle for that many days back to back was something that didn’t digest well. I decided to establish a routine for myself and filled my day with at least 2-3 activities, even though we were indoors.
With Dance being a field where the in-person interaction is so important, we all just had to resort to making it work indoors. This led me to introduce some of my first classes under the ‘Sunrise Dance’ name in a virtual setting. I connected with many people from various parts of the world. However, I just wasn’t seeing that translate into any client bookings. I kept reminding myself to focus only on building my brand at that time and the rest would follow. When everything started to open up slowly, that’s when I started hearing from a few clients. They expressed how they’ve been following my page from the beginning and were just waiting for the time where everything gets a bit better before booking their event.
They say all it takes is an idea to start a business, but you really don’t know if it’s something that works until that ONE person sees that in you. And that’s all that it took. When that first client reached out, I knew this idea came about in my head for a reason. I worked even harder to market more, create videos, collaborations and promote my business on various platforms.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a Choreographer specialized in Wedding and Events. I also offer Private Lessons, Classes at Montessori schools, and host ShaadiHits workshops on weekends where everyone gets together and learns fun routines to popular Wedding Songs!
I am most proud of myself for just starting and continuing to push forward despite whatever got in the way. What sets me apart from others is that I treat each client’s event with utmost importance. I know the Wedding Day is so special and creating a routine that portrays the couple’s relationship through their movement is something I put a lot of thought into. I customize each client’s choreography separately from another because everyone has a special story of their own!
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Risk-Taking and Entrepreneurship go hand in hand. However, you don’t know how that risk will impact you until you just try.
Starting a business is a risk. Giving up a stable 9-5 job in order to pursue your dreams and starting from scratch is a risk. The way I look at it is there are only 2 ways you can go – either you can spend the rest of your life thinking “what if” or you can actually go through that curiosity, no matter how scary or risky it is, and learn from it. And I know I always want to live life without any what if’s!
Contact Info:
- Email: info@sunrise-dance.com
- Website: www.sunrise-dance.com
- Instagram: @sdweddingchoreo
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/sdweddingchoreo
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyBFYXrJbXQSA5Uex2PdC9g
- Other: linktr.ee/sdweddingchoreo
Image Credits
@joemichaelphotovideo
@jillian_zamora_photo
@blacktieproject
@kaitlyntranphotography
