Junkeri's Story
Junkeri is a Oriental Dance (aka bellydance) school based out of Mumbai, India. What started off as a small bellydance performance troupe is now a celebrated bellydance school worldwide. In less than a year of classes we have worked with passion and love and have been blessed with nearly 1000 students all across the world. Junkeri is proud to be a sister unit of one of the finest and oldest bellydance schools of India Banjara School of Dance. At the school, which for us is more a state of mind than just a physical school, we hope that dancers find quality training in bellydance and allied arts which helps them to emerge as stronger dancers and human beings. At the school, we value and prioritize mindfulness, inclusivity, self love along with soulful dancing.
At Junkeri, we see bellydance as an inner light that always guides people to find their true, beautiful, expressive, free selves; and so we say:
"Bring Forth Your Light..."
~Junkeri means firefly in Nepali.
Junkeri Founder: Damini Sahay
"I didn't choose bellydance, bellydance chose me. It is what makes me a better human every single day of my life."
Damini Sahay, our founder and artistic director is a professional Oriental Dance Artist, performer, teacher and heads Junkeri with all her love. She is trained in multiple dance styles since a very young age and sharing the joy and freedom of bellydance is her purpose in life. Apart from bellydance, she is also a Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) practitioner and a former child psychologist.
She found bellydance saving her life at a very tough stage in her life and since then it hasn't failed to lift her life and make her a better woman every single day of her life. Thus for her, with Junkeri, the aim is to help dancers find that inner light through the beautiful art of bellydance.
She has been teaching bellydance since 2012, has performed in Berlin, Cairo, Paris, Sri Lanka, Lisbon, Budapest and in various cities inside India. She won the group competition in the folklore category at the prestigious Nile Festival Cairo one year into her bellydancing with Banjara School of Dance. She has trained under nearly all the leading master teachers in the community of bellydance including Oriental and fusion styles.
Some of the unique achievements of her work include annual tours of Egypt for Cultural Absorption and Dance Trainings and Junkeri is the only school in India to offer not just certification courses but a unique 1 year diploma in Classical & Modern Oriental Dance called Meraqi. Lastly, Maya, the International Oriental Dance Festival has seen participation from across the globe, during tough times of the pandemic with some of the leading master teachers of the field.
Above laurels, Damini values qualitative measure of life and dance such as depth, honesty, freedom and expression without undermining for herself or her students the importance of discipline, aesthetics, cultural context, musicality, cross training, body awareness and hard work.
"I welcome you with open arms to my school Junkeri and hope you discover the beauty of bellydance while discovering your self."
Meet the Team
I'm Kaanchana AKA Sanna.
I express myself through dance. I have been on a journey for the last 10 years as a dancer, an explorer and a performer to know myself better through the art of movement. I am now getting ready to give back to the community in my own way and inspire all the shy and hidden artists like me to pursue their passion.
I have trained in multiple styles such as Jazz, Jazz Funk, Whacking, Tap Dance, Contemporary and Hip-Hop. I have been training in Belly Dance from last 5 years. I also got an opportunity to travel with Junkeri to Cairo (Egypt) and Budapest (Europe) to train and perform at festivals.
I've recently started teaching and assisting Damini Sahay at Junkeri Oriental School of Dance after training consistently under her for 4 years.
Kaanchana Khadatkar
- Instructor &
Assistant Choreographer
My teacher says "Bellydance chooses you", well I would rephrase it for myself to "Bellydance and Junkeri chose me".
It is a story of series of coincidences that led me to Junkeri back in 2020 as a Beginners student in Online format.
This school has seen me grow from a college student to a dentist, from a dependent adult to an independent woman, from a Beginners student to an Admin at the school!
Loving my journey as a human and embracing my womanhood as I keep growing and learning with Damini & Junkeri.
Oh and, apart from your toothaches and school queries you can also DM me if you wanna play a game of chess! ;)
All things brain excite me the most!
Vidhi Karelia
- Art Assistant/ Manager
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