top of page

Our Founder

Aanal Sheth - Teacher, Choreographer, Dancer

Aanal Sheth

Teacher, Choreographer, Dancer

Watch Aanal's talk at TedXTysons 2017 to learn more about her background, her philosophy of dance and teaching and the journey that led to Studio Dhoom!


Aanal is an accomplished dancer, choreographer and teacher. 

Trained in Indian classical Kuchipudi dance form and in multiple Indian folk and semi-classical dances as well as western and contemporary dances, Aanal has been dancing all her life. After earning her M.Ed in e-Learning and Instructional design from George Mason University and a career at a nationally renowned non-profit, she decided to pursue her true passion of teaching dance after the birth of her first son.

Having heard from numerous people including children learning Indian classical and other dance forms, she realized that existing dance instruction was missing one key ingredient – a personal connection with youth & motivation. She started her first dance class with 2 students and a simple motto “Culture is sacred. Preserving it should be fun!”. Combining her dance background with her instructional design skills, Studio Dhoom now has more than 400 active dancers of all age groups. Working under the umbrella of Bollywood dancing, she has helped promote the vibrant and culture-rich traditional genres of Indian dancing including folk and semi-classical dancing styles.

Aanal’s work and contributions have been recognized across the community and Studio Dhoom students have won many competitions and performed at prestigious events such as the NBA Washington Wizards half-time show, several Bollywood concerts at Warner Theater and EagleBank Arena, the Hershey Park and the National Cherry Blossom festival.

She draws strength and continued passion realizing the impact of her work on passing on the rich cultural heritage to the next generation through the medium of dance – all while having fun in a warm, friendly, cheerful and safe environment!

Meet The Team

Samruddhi Pande - Bollywood performer

Samruddhi Pande

Bollywood

Samruddhi is a Bollywood Performer, Choreographer and Dance Instructor with extensive experience teaching Indian Classical, Folk and semi-classical dances.

Samruddhi has a Visharadh in Bharatnatyam and she has also trained in & taught Kathak. As a Bharatnatyam dancer, she has represented the Indian Cricket team in IPL Season 2, 2013. 

 During her career working in Bollywood movies and TV industry, she has had the opportunity to work closely with all well known choreographers and renowned Bollywood stars such as Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Akshay Kumar, Ranveer Singh, Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, Alia Bhatt and many others. Samruddhi is very excited to join Studio Dhoom family as a full-time instructor!

Nafeesa Bari - Hip Hop Bollywood Fusion performer

Nafeesa Bari

Hip Hop Bollywood Fusion

Nafeesa began dancing at Dominion High School Dance Team. She
has competed at high school dance team competitions in Virginia
and Nationally during all four years in high school. Nafeesa has a strong background dancing hip-hop as well as choreographing hip-hop. She served as a co-captain her senior
year in high school and helped to lead her Dance Team to earn one of the highest national rankings in
Dominion history, placing 2nd in the nation. Nafeesa is currently attending George Mason University and has been part of the Studio Dhoom family since 2015.

ashley.JPG

Ashley Thomas

Bollywood

Ashley is an outgoing and energetic Dance Instructor with talent in a wide variety of Bollywood  and cultural dances. As a professional dance instructor he has 15 years experience teaching all age groups and not only fully understands the needs of students, but also has the ability to quickly engage with them. During his career, he has taught in private dance schools, colleges and adult education centers, along with pursuing dancing career professionally as a Bollywood Dancer and Assistant Choreographer with well known choreographers such as Geeta Kapoor, Bosco Caesar, Sanjay Shetty and Sumit-Vinod. He has choreographed for award Shows such as Star Screen Awards, Filmfare Awards, IIFA  Awards, Gima Awards, Stardust awards, Golden Petal Awards and Reality shows such as Naach Baliye, Jhalak Dikhlaja, DID Season 1 & 2. During these years of working in the industry Mr. Ashley had the opportunity to meet, work & teach Bollywood dance to most of the Bollywood stars through movies and shows such as Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, Amir Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Akshay Kumar, Ranveer Singh, Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, Alia Bhat, Varun Dhawan, Sidharth Malhotra, and other. He is looking forward to spreading his love for dance at Studio Dhoom.

bottom of page