Aaja Nachle Dance Academy
C-59, B Block, Sector 59, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201303, India
Aaja Nachle Dance Academy pulses at the intersection of tradition and trend, occupying a converted 1920s textile warehouse on the eastern edge of Devon Avenue in Chicago. Vaulted timber ceilings still carry faint ghosts of cotton dust, but today the 3,800-square-foot floor is laid with honey-toned maple planks shipped from Kerala to withstand the heel drops of bhangra and the gliding arcs of kathak alike. Along one wall, a floor-to-ceiling mirror etched with swirling paisley motifs reflects rows of LED panels that wash the room in color—sometimes the electric magenta of a Bollywood premiere, sometimes the saffron glow of garba season. Opposite the mirrors, a photographic timeline documents twenty-two years of recitals: students as toddlers in ghungroos, the same teens now choreographing fusion pieces for Punjabi MC concerts downtown.
Founder and artistic director Naina Khanna—a disciple of Birju Maharaj and a veteran backup dancer for AR Rahman’s U.S. tours—teaches six days a week. Her syllabus fuses codified classical theory with pop-culture heartbeat; Tuesday evenings begin with teen folk cardio (think dandiya squats synced to Diplo remixes) before sliding into abhinaya technique under soft tabla loops. Monthly “open source” Saturdays invite anyone—grandmothers with walking sticks or TikTok creators with ring lights—to learn the hook step of the latest viral track, then break into small groups to re-imagine it under Naina’s critique. The result is a perpetual community reel: construction workers nailing ukhli footwork beside nursing students twirling dupattas in hospital scrubs.
Registration is intentionally flexible. Drop-in cards shaped like old Bollywood movie tickets cost $18; unlimited passes are priced on a sliding scale pegged to the city’s minimum wage. Each quarter culminates in “Ticket to Bollywood,” a warehouse-style show where the mirrored wall retracts to reveal a 150-seat riser arrangement and a modest stage rigged with haze machines borrowed from a local theater collective. Proceeds fund subsidized classes for refugee youth; last Durga Puja, the academy bussed thirty-four Rohingya teens to the venue for drum-making workshops followed by collaborative dhamal.
Upstairs, a mezzanine lounge doubles as a museum: costumes encased in glass—Madhubala-inspired anarkalis, LED-lit ghagras—rotate on loan from private collectors, while archival headphones play remastered recordings of thumri legends taped in Lahore before Partition. Aaja Nachle also partners with a neighboring craft brewery to host “India Pale Raas” nights: kathak footwork drills spill onto the patio between pours of cardamom saison. By 10 p.m., bartenders slide pint glasses beneath the rafters, the sound of wooden benches sliding back merging with the click of ankle bells, the academy refusing to choose between heritage and the heartbeat of right now.
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- Published: August 3, 2025
