An amazing story of hard work, dedication, and a love for dance, Mithali Shetty (@mithalishetty03) is a Mumbai based dancer, choreographer, instructor, and founder of her very own dance institute. Having worked with the biggest names in Bollywood, and with over 75,000 followers on Instagram, Shetty has taken the dance world by storm with her amazing moves.
From a young age Mithali was interested in performing arts, and her parents supported her. They enrolled her into a Gurukul (Dance School) in Muscat, Oman, at the age of 5. Here she was trained in Bharatnatyam (Indian classical dance form) for 10 years. While in school, she participated in and choreographed dance performances at school events and shows.
Her parents were supportive of her pursuing a career in dance, and Mithali recalls how they spent time researching dance universities on Google. She sent in audition videos to the colleges, and after getting accepted into three different universities, Shetty pursued her graduation in dance, at a University in the United Kingdom.
When she returned to Mumbai in 2016, she was invited to work alongside Bollywood choreographer Sanjay Shetty, who among other things is known for choreographing performances at the IIFA awards. She got this opportunity as Sanjay Shetty had visited a dance school in Muscat where Mithali used to teach. He was quite impressed with her work, her dance, and her teaching abilities.
She worked as an Assistant Choreographer doing various live events and shows. “I was in Bollywood, so on a regular basis, we were working with big names like Alia Bhatt, Salman Khan, and Varun Dhawan, just to name a few.” she says.
After working with Sanjay Shetty for two years, Mithali decided to follow an independent path of starting her own dance institute: BIPA India. She says “I felt it’s time for me to share my knowledge, step out, and do my own thing.”
With support from her father, Mithali founded her own institute, which is one of the first dance institutes to be recognized by the Government of India. While Mithali focuses on teaching Hip-Hop, Bollywood, and Bolly-Hop, she has 8 other instructors for various other forms of dance.
It wasn’t smooth sailing though. Mithali describes the first year as being quite difficult. As it was still new, very few people knew about BIPA India. “People don’t know where you’re located, what you do, and there’s a lot of investment that goes into starting a Dance institute, and its difficult to manage when you don’t get back the expected returns.” she says.
Mithali then started to promote BIPA India on social media platforms. She began to post content daily and kept updating statuses. At one point, she didn’t even visit her personal Instagram page and focused all her energy on BIPA India’s page. And the results showed, soon more people learned about the institute, took dance lessons, and loved it.
When the pandemic started, she became more active on TikTok, and kept posting dance videos that she would record at home. She has continued to stay active on Social media and keeps having online classes and contests on BIPA India’s page.
A part of Shetty’s future plans included hosting a Dance exhibition, where different institutes can promote their dance training, and people can display the various aspects of dance, like different Dance attires and shoes. Dancers would also get a large platform to showcase their dance.
Mithali’s advice to dancers is to keep going, and not stop. She says, “Don’t give up because you think it is too much work. The hard work you invest, will earn you respect.”
