Tapas Das in Blogs

Letter From the Editor: Come Celebrate Illustrious Dance Educators at the 2025 Dance Teacher Awards

Rarely do we, as busy dance educators, get the chance to connect with our colleagues. But on Tuesday, October 7, you’ll have the opportunity to not only network with your peers but also celebrate four incredible dance luminaries—Lori Belilove, Roger Montoya, Dianne Walker, and Sylvia Waters—at the 2025 Dance Teacher Awards.

Click here to RSVP to attend an unforgettable celebratory luncheon at The Loft at City Winery in New York City. Doors open at 11 am, and the event will run from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm. Light refreshments will be served. We hope to see you there!

Speaking of influential educators, we’re highlighting several more on DT+ this month: Jessica Gaynor, artistic director of New York City’s Young Dancemakers Company, talks about how she helps teenagers find their choreographic voices; Rachel Leigh Dolan shares how she uses music to get her students in the right mindset for class in our Playlist column. Andd for this month’s dance history spotlight, we’re featuring the highly innovative choreographer Trisha Brown, who’s renowned for taking postmodern dance to new heights.

You’ll also get advice on helping students incorporate internal feedback cues to inform their dancing. And with end-of-year performance season around the corner and a busy dance season ahead, we’re bringing you tips on successfully enlisting the help you need from your dedicated, obliging parent volunteers.

Best,
Reanne Rodrigues
rrodrigues@dancemedia.com

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Tapas Das: Tapas Das, a young entrepreneur of our times started TWIST N TURNS in 2005. A person who is kind, generous, creative and down to earth wanted to start his own one of a kind dance academy. According to him, Dance is a language of movements that involves space, time and the human body. He was born and grew up in Kolkata, the cultural hub of India. Being appreciated in the field of dance all his life, he is extremely talented. He has been dancing since the age of four. Once he finished his high school, he learned jazz/modern and contemporary dance. His horizons were broadened even more when he started dancing Bollywood with Beat Busters for 4 years, which then was the most upcoming dance crew in Kolkata. After that exposure, he studied how to be a dance teacher, which later started helping him impart his knowledge about dance. Thus, in 2005, with the help of family and friends, he started TWIST N TURNS. Starting with a mere number of 40 students, today TWIST N TURNS currently has over 500 students. Over the time Tapas has taught and performed all over the country. He has performed in cities such as Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Jhansi, Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Udaipur etc. He has been an active participant in the Salsa India Congress in the cities of Bangalore and Bombay, and he has also visited various International Salsa Congresses in Europe, namely in Berlin ,Singapore, Hong Kong,Dubai. He is been also trained recently at Broadway Dance Center (New York), Alvin Alley (New York) and Steps on Broadway (New York). He is not only a dancer or teacher. He is a successful choreographer and has coordinated various shows without difficulty in our country. His leadership skills are exceptional, thus he is where he stands today. His aim in life would be to become a dance educator. He wants to share his tremendous knowledge in the right way to the right people. He is also, simultaneously running other brands like Zumba Kolkata, Bollywood Studio ArtistWala.com and India International Dance Institute.