From a young age, Renu’s enthusiasm and passion for dance led her parents to enroll her in ballet classes. The technique and discipline provided a solid foundation to her dance training, but she was still restless for more energetic and compelling styles of dance. Curious and passionate, Renu spent years studying Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Hip hop, B-girl technique, Tap, African, Haitian, Salsa, Kathak and Bharatanatyam from some of the world’s foremost dancers, as well as aerial silk & lyra, yoga and Pilates. It was only after searching for fulfillment in studying and choreographing these many and varied global styles of movement, that she re-discovered a dance form linked to her own roots, which encapsulated all the elements she loved about dancing: Bollywood.

On a visit home to India, Renu discovered Bollywood movies and the cornerstone of the Indian film style—bollywood dancing. Stylistically, that was the turning point for Renu. Bollywood dance provided the contagious energy, expressive beauty, and unparalleled passion and spirit she’d been searching for in all her years of dance training.

Following that visit, Renu began performing with New York City’s Bollywood Axion through 2005, and worked to grow Bollywood Axion, developing a role as Company Manager and eventually as teaching associate. Following a move to Denver, Renu founded Denver and Boulder’s first and largest Bollywood, Bhangra, and indian-fusion dance studio, with the only adult performing company in the region. In 2010, Renu sought to return to her own roots, in Michigan, which brought her to the BollyFit family. Coming home to Michigan was both symbolic and literal, in many ways--bringing Renu back to her birthplace and community of friends and family--where she could share her gifts of dance and culture, as well as parlaying culture into an exuberant dance-fitness experience, accessible and enjoyable to everyone. BollyFit is the PerfectFit, and Renu is overjoyed to come home, with her daughter, Rithika, a BollyFit Kid.

Renu is a member of the Lululemon Athletica R&D team, and has maintained the exclusive-endorser relationship between BollyFit and NYX Cosmetics. She is a certified Zumba and ZumbAtomic instructor, who thrills to bring bollywood and bhangra into her Caribbean, African and Latin dance choreography. Up With People is currently touring Renu’s choreography for “Jai Ho” as the showstopper finale of their international tour, and her master classes, workshops, and choreography remain in high-demand, regionally and nationwide. Renu’s conservatory study was intensively developed for many years at the world-renowned Interlochen Center for the Arts and she was a merit-based scholarship recipient at Interlochen, multiple and consecutive years.

With over 30 years of dance training, performance, and teaching experience, Renu’s bi-cultural upbringing and movement education gives her a unique ability to teach the Indian styles of dance in language that non-Indian students can understand. “Everyone can dance, it just takes a patient and compassionate teacher, who can break down each dance step, to the point where students will understand the simplicity at the core of even the most counter-intuitive step, and feel natural in their movements, that is when we move with joy and presence.” she says, adding, “When we dance, we are most alive.”