On today's Friday Follow, we discuss and talk about another talent trying to bring smiles through her art, Snehal Panda.
Art always has its way to get to you when you have a creative soul. For someone who is on the lookout for ways to satisfy their creative urges, social media has been able to give them a platform. The last two years have been an amazing year for people to showcase their artistic talents. And just like them, dancer Snehal Panda has been able to live her passion.
Snehal Reetu Sunil Panda, who belongs to one of the suburban cities of Mumbai grew up loving art. She was keen on sharing and living a life doing something she loves. People often appreciate her funny and sassy personality which was also something that showed her presence to entertain people. While she is now a full-time dance professional, one other love that she also shares is that of traveling. "I make sure I travel solo at least once a year. That helps me focus better."
Snehal has been able to grow as a person and a professional when it comes to being a dancer. From learning through her mistakes to teaching people of all ages, she has developed her own brand. But it was something that happened all by chance for her. This was never her first choice of career and something that was never part of her plan. "Career-wise I wanted to become a chef, initially but then I had to settle for mass media that's the only option I had but dancing or a career as a dancer wasn't in the plan. It happened all of a sudden when a group of kids from my residence approached me because they wanted to learn a set for their school competition."
After starting her content creation journey and welcoming all the love online she recognized the positive changes that have helped her evolve as an artist. "Social media introduced me to soo many forms and styles, which makes me feel more inquisitive to know about that particular form or style."
Her style is everything from Bollywood, semi-classical to funk. She teaches people encouraging them to not shy away from doing what they love, despite their age. The fact that her students belong from a four-year-old to 60 years old makes for some of her positive achievements. Snehal makes sure to share and inspire people to continue to be better by sharing her own experiences of being a dancer. Not to forget the ways she tries to point out and talk about the creators who inspire her. Body positivity is one aspect of social media that she never misses a chance to talk about. Engaging in conversations with her followers and talking about people who continue to inspire her, Snehal goes on to spread smiles in her own way.
Snehal has been fortunate enough to be awarded for her works and for being recognized for the work that she continues to do. From her very first achievement was the Youth achievers award to being acknowledged with the Most Empowering Woman Award 2020 by Aparna Bhoir, political leader of MANSE she has been making a mark with her talents. "My story was issued in Gaurav Grantha, the magazine of DAINIK AMBERNATH TIMES" of which she shared a clip of some of her students reading out the article out loud. The video shows how proud the students were of their teacher.
When it comes to reels, she said that it is always the dance trends that she loves watching. Not forgetting her love for travel, she also enjoys her fair share of Travel reels. "If I had to choose a favorite it would be the one I collaborated with my college friend. The video was published during Janmashtami and the reel was a hit"
When asked how have social media responses affected her she says, "Absolutely nothing on the internet has affected me neither online trolling nor harsh comments and I haven't faced body image issues due to these comments. The only thing that has affected me since I started creating content is my busy schedule. I have no ongoing batches and I get super tired at the end of the day that's the only thing that affects my content creation."
But she also recalls a positive comment that she received over her time as a dancer that left an impact on her. "There have been many such instances one of them is, a 60-year-old touched my feet and thanked me for being her guru. She told me she would have never been able to follow her passion until she saw and met me. Trust me she is 60 and she dances like a 25-year-old." According to her, these are the responses that make her work worth it.
Since you started creating videos, what according to you are the best and worst parts of content creation?
The best part is I have all the freedom to express my emotions via my art form, the only worse part is the data restoration. There have been times when the video was soo beautiful but the data got corrupted or deleted or something, and that's disheartening
Who are the people that you look up to find inspiration?
Ashish Patil sir
A quote that always motivates you.
'Artists aren't born, they are made.'
Have you received any DM from your followers that stayed with you?
Yes, many followers are now my students more like my family
If you had to describe your hopes for 2022?
An artist wants recognition, so I want to be known for the way I think and for the idea behind dancing
We can't wait to see what else Sneha has in store for us.