Ace choreographers Farah Khan and Ashley Lobo recently held a virtual panel discussion where they mentored more than 200 budding dancers. They discussed the future of teaching and learning dance in the new normal and the scope of being a dancer in the post-Covid era.

"The main objective of the session was to expand the understanding of commercial dance in India and to create an environment for dancers to approach commercial dance as a career. We wanted to create awareness about what is possible still and equip dancers with the correct information about what it takes to build a professional dance career today. There could be no one better than Farah to interact with the students about these important topics," Lobo said.

Farah highlighted during the discussion how dance happened to her.

"Dance was a very good way for me to forget my troubles at home and the circumstances that we were living in. For me, there was a joy that I would get. Dance actually saved my life at that point," she said.

Lobo couldn't agree more. "I think this is very common. It is said that you never choose dance, dance chooses you. It's always an accident," he said.

With the uncertainty that performing artistes are faced with the current Covid era, the two dance maestros had helpful advice for the dancers.

"Today is a great time for people who are trained in dance and who can choreograph because there is so much work. It's not only about doing work in films. There is so much work on television, thousands of reality shows. Today there is a different industry where you can do corporate shows. If you do a film song that does well, it becomes your legacy. But if you want to make money and you want a career, there are so many options now, none of which were available to us when we started work," Farah said.