A free spirit

She dances to her own tune. Actor, dancer, choreographer, painter, co-writer and co-producer for the upcoming film Downward Dog Joshinder Chaggar is not one to let other people dictate the course of her life. And in carving out her career as a dancer, she strives to constantly push the boundaries of her own limitations.

When I meet the multi-hyphenate artist at her apartment overlooking the beach at Karachi’s Seaview, she is wearing a bright orange dress with black tights and has a warm smile that accentuates her sunny attire. We walk past a number of expressive paintings hung on the walls as she takes us to her living room. I later learn these are her works.



Chaggar’s home is bathed in sunlight — it is difficult to avert your gaze from the beautiful view that lies beyond the glass windows in her living space. Turn your eyes from the clear ocean you can glimpse from these windows and you find yourself distracted by the pretty blue eyeliner Chaggar has worn. There is something about her that makes one feel immediately at ease and her positive energy feels contagious.

“Dance is in my soul”

Chaggar’s can-do attitude was a driving factor in her decision to become a dancer. “I have been dancing all my life,” she explains. “I learned Bharatanatyam when I was five but I don’t come from a family of artists so the idea that I can dance as a child was unthinkable.” Chaggar enrolled at Deakin University in Melbourne to undertake a two-year Diploma in Business Marketing. She didn’t like the course and after working for a year, she joined the university again to study Bachelors in Contemporary Dance. “I remember reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and it changed my thinking completely,” she says. In the book, Coelho famously wrote, “Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realise their Personal Legend.” This idea struck a chord with Chaggar, giving her the impetus to study dance. “It didn’t matter how I would make a career out of dancing,” she says. “Dance is in my soul, that is just who I am so whether I earn from it or not, these questions are very secondary,”

At a time when Bollywood was booming in Australia, Chaggar would go to weekend dance workshops, and attend dance classes at Dance Central in Sydney. She took Jazz/Funk, Salsa, Hawaariin, Belly dance, Dance hall, Samba and Afro Cuban dance classes in Sydney and would perform whenever she got the opportunity. “I never thought about money, my career or my future. People say that luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity, and I found that to be very true,” she explains. “I became a trained dancer by default because I never stopped learning and then things changed.” Later, she worked with a dance company ‘Melange Dance’ for a few years in Sydney. She misses her dance classes the most in Karachi, hence she has taken up yoga to keep learning and evolving constantly.

“It is a privilege to live in Pakistan”

Dancing is a niche industry in Pakistan and has not been given a chance to truly flourish. Hence, Chaggar’s choice to live in Pakistan despite having spent the majority of her life in Australia, and pursuing a career in an art form that is not widely championed here, is curious. “I came to Pakistan in 2007 for personal reasons,” she explains. “I am a very in-the-moment kind of person and I never came here to establish my career. I thought I would go back to Australia after one year but I got offered so much work in Pakistan and I enjoyed it. It was challenging and the learning curve was amazing. I realised that there is so much that I can do here.” In fact, on her very second day in Pakistan, Chaggar received an offer from MTV to perform and choreograph at the Indus Style Awards. “When I came here, I had no idea what I would do. I never knew that dance would exist in Pakistan,” she recalls.

Photo shoot of Joshinder Chaggar in Karachi. PHOTO CREDIT: FARZAD BAGHERI

Upon hearing her doubts about the field of dancing in Pakistan, I ask about her preconceived notions about Pakistan in general as she has spent most of her life in the West. With a little pause, she answers, “I think my views of Pakistan were in line with what other people in the West think about it and frankly, it is no one’s fault to think like that because you are constantly showed only one side of Pakistan.” Being a risk-taker and a free spirit, Chaggar travelled to Pakistan without being overly concerned about landing in a country she had primarily known through the prism of violence.

Contrary to her expectations, she found Pakistan quite welcoming, and she grabbed the chance to present an alternate image of the country to friends and family abroad. “It is a privilege to live here and when I go abroad, I feel like an ambassador and educate others because if I was in their place, even I wouldn’t have known what Pakistan is truly like,” she tells me proudly. She recalls her time at ActOne, a dance and exercise studio in Karachi where she taught dance in January 2009, where she was surprised at the number of people who were eager to dance. “I used to have a waiting list of 50 people for my classes,” she says. “Some would say that they were willing to stand next to the bathroom just to be a part of the class!” Contrary to popular belief that Pakistanis are not interested in formal dance training, Chaggar shares that she didn’t come across a single person who thinks that dancing is taboo. When asked if people would take their classes with her seriously, she exclaims, “Oh totally! They were addicted to it. Dancing is like therapy and helps you find out so much about yourself and your confidence level rises.”

Chaggar’s pride in Pakistan is tempered, however, by her disappointment in official recognition of the work dancers do. Chaggar shares that Pakistan has 44 different forms of folk dances, but many are gradually losing their identity because of lack of interest and promotion. “In all the countries where art is flourishing, it is because of the government’s support,” she feels. “Literature and dance, it is all part of our heritage and the government is obviously not doing anything to preserve it.” Giving the example of India and Australia, she shares that dance is part of the regular school curriculum, a testament to the importance given to the craft.

“She Flies with the Swallows”

Speaking to Chaggar, one realises that dancing is not as glamourous as it looks — it is a gruelling passion. For instance, there have been times when she has had a 20-hour shoot and has to rehearse continuously. Even so, she recalls that every moment of honing her craft has been enjoyable as it was about getting to know herself. This brings us to Chaggar’s realisation that she also wanted to act, not just dance. “I started acting in Australia and I did a couple of short films. It is something I stumbled onto,” she explains. She recalls an audition where she had to prepare a monologue. “I was so nervous while giving it that I had tears in my eyes but they thought that I gave a brilliant performance,” she laughs.

Dance performance at Blah & Blah, an original theatre piece, at the NAPA International Theatre Festival 2014. PHOTO:FILE

This year, Chaggar can be seen on the silver screen in Jami’s Moor, in which she plays Sarah, a daughter whose loyalties are divided between family commitments and her father. Chaggar says that her interest in Moor was driven because she was eager to work with Jami, as she is a big fan of his work. Working on the film was just as exciting as she had hoped, she says. “I spent a week in Quetta for workshops and just under a month in Muslim Bagh in the city, as half of the movie has been filmed in Balochistan,” she says.

Chaggar’s latest project, ‘She Flies with the Swallows’, is a 20-minute solo contemporary dance performance, which she eventually hopes to extend to 40 minutes. “I am on a mission to do 100 performances and to date, I have had 22 performances,” she says. “The show is about the emotional migration from a place where you are not happy and finding the courage to search for a better place.” Chaggar has taken the performance to schools for hearing impaired children in Karachi and her first performance was on August 14, 2014 at Headstart School in Karachi

Additionally, Chaggar is also working on an upcoming movie Downward Dog, slated for release at the end of 2016. The film has been written by Jami, Fawad Khan, and herself. “It is a really exciting project and I am the lead actor in this,” she says.

Even with her plate full with acting and dancing commitments, Chaggar is eager to look to the future. She wants to pursue comic roles in films, while pushing her acting and dancing career further.

As my chat with Chaggar comes to an end, I find myself feeling even more energised than I was when I first walked into her home. As she walks me out, I feel pleased that there are people like Chaggar bold enough to follow their passion and live life to the fullest and take risks. After all, if Chaggar wouldn’t have dared to come to a country which she had never explored before, she would have never got the chance to discover the side of Pakistan hidden away from those who do not live here. And we would never have had the chance to witness the joy that this discovery brings to her work.

Komal Anwar is a sub editor at The Express Tribune’s magazine desk. She tweets @Komal1201

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, September 27^th, 2015.