Shakira, Madhuri Dixit are Nora Fatehi’s favorite dancers

Today Nora Fatehi is famous as the most popular and best performer of Bollywood. She is touted as an aspirational icon because of her knowledge and experience in dance. Recalling her childhood days, Nora shares her journey about learning different forms of dance just by practicing on her own, without undertaking a professional training.

She got inspired by legendary performers like Shakira, Madhuri Dixit, Beyonce, Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez as well as Turkish belly dancer Didem and aced her performance by exploring varied terrains.

In an interview, she opened up about her favorite dancers who inspired her in her dance. She said, “I was always someone who did a lot of research and I never really focused on one genre of dance or one style of music or language or culture. I always wanted to have a variety and diversity in my learning. So, I was heavily inspired by them and I would always lock myself in a room. My mom was busy doing something, talking to her friend on the phone or cleaning and I just moved in front of the mirror and see certain movements they would do and I would try and repeat it over and over again until I got it.”

In the interview, she talked about her  childhood and early experiences of dance in school saying, “I am from a very ghetto area in Toronto with different type of people. I lived with a lot of people who were Jamaican, Guyanese, Nigerian, Somalian, Indian, very diverse community, and they had their own ways of dancing and I picked up from all of them. At school we used to teach each other because we don’t really have resources to go to posh dance schools or dance classes because nobody really had the money. So, we used to teach each other and do free programmes at school, and everytime there was like a certain event at school, like we had African heritage month, Asian heritage month, every month we would celebrate someone’s culture, I would be the first one on stage doing a dance performance. Every month, there’s Nora again, she’s going to dance for us, and I used to take it so seriously I used to think I’m like in the Super Bowl stage or something. So, it was always in me and I always pushed myself.”

Nora Fatehi came to India and her dancing talent was recognized by the entertainment industry. And now she is leaving imprints of her remarkable performances all across the globe.