Started by a Friends-duo as a Passion Project, Thangaat Garba Academy is Reaching Places Now!

Parth and Ankit, two passionate people about Garba, met at an event and instantly recognised their love for this dance form. In 2010, when Ankit was dancing in a studio, he found an equally passionate dancer, Parth and that was the beginning of Thangaat Garba, a dance Academy in Mumbai that teaches Garba to people. Back in 2018 when the duo thought of starting off with one batch they did not even think of having 8000 plus students in one year. Now, they are famous as the 'Garba Guys' for teaching the traditional dance of Gujarat, not only in India but globally. 

In the first few batches itself, the duo saw ‘Garba Queen’ Falguni Pathak visit their classes and sing Gujarati songs live in front of them. “At that time, we used to only dance on Falguni Pathak’s songs and her visiting our studio was a sign for us to continue with this venture," says Ankit, the co-founder of Thangaat Garba. This gave them a sense of pride and boosted their morale so they could continue teaching garba when there were very few people in this industry.

After a few initial trials, they launched garba workshops in 5 different locations in 2018. But it was not easy for them to promote something that had a casual pre-conceived notion not to learn it professionally. Parth, the other co-founder of Thangaat Garba came up with the idea of giving Garba a modern twist with aesthetically pleasing steps so that it appeals to the youth who had very little interest in this traditional form of dance. “We wanted the people to know that Garba is beyond 3 4 steps and it can be quirky too,” says Parth. Soon the duo came up with their own version of Garba keeping the traditional form in place, which was liked by many. 

Since they were also going through a financial crunch due to their new venture, they started taking classes to fill their pockets while promoting Garba. But, what started with a Gujarati crowd now sees people from all religions, cultures, cast, ages and backgrounds. ”Now, we have people from the age of 5 till 60 and only 50% of the students are Gujaratis,” says Parth. And a team that started with 4, presently has 300 instructors. With increasing instructors, the number of students has also grown every year, this year being the record breaker with 8540 students learning with them so far. “These students are from 183 different workshops conducted in 113 locations in India and around the world including places like Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Nagpur, Dubai, Muscat, Abu Dhabi, Australia, London and Ireland,” the co-founder expresses with excitement.

Apart from teaching, the duo has also collaborated with famous artists, musicians, and celebrities. They worked with Falguni Pathak on one of her tracks and collaborated with well-known figures like singer Bhoomi Trivedi and Femina Miss India World titleholder Sini Shetty, to name a few. Their students win various titles at Garba competitions and represent them at some of the biggest cultural events, fulfilling their dream of spreading the joy of Garba across the world.