Chapter 1: Meet Sharmila Mitra

JOHN: In this week’s podcast, we have Sharmila. She is a Pilates and GYROTONIC® teacher, a teacher trainer, and a studio owner of Core Arts Pilates, as well as a former competitive dance teacher and choreographer. In this podcast, we talk about her Power of Intention for Dancers journal, the dangers of overstretching, and how dance teachers can protect themselves. Are you ready to be bold and be fierce? Please welcome to the podcast and stage, Sharmila.

JOHN: Welcome back, listeners. I am so grateful and kind of in shock that I have this guest on today. It’s someone who I’ve known for a long time and we know a lot about dance moms, dance competitions, classes, studios, dancers. Her name is Sharmila Mitra and she’s a Pilates and GYROTONIC® teacher, a teacher trainer and studio owner of Core Arts Pilates — which I’m sure all you dance moms in Southern California know about. She’s also the author of The Power of Intention for Dancers. I also knew her as a competitive dance teacher and choreographer, and when I had a dance company, she helped me a lot. Please welcome to the podcast, Sharmila Mitra.

SHARMILA: Oh my gosh, thank you so much, John, for having me. I’m so excited to be here. I have loved your podcast and I’m really honored that you asked me to be on.

JOHN: Thank you for your support. You’ve always been so supportive. Sharmila was there in the beginning when I was just starting to think of the idea of Dance Moms. I just wanted to pay off a credit card and she gave me these cards — cards about finance and abundance. She’s always been a big supporter. So I start with these four questions: How are you feeling? Where do you feel it? What color is it? And what is it saying? How are you feeling this lovely rainy day, Sharmila?

SHARMILA: I’m feeling hopeful. I’m feeling excited. I’m feeling motivated and inspired by Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show. I know I should have worn my bell bottoms.

JOHN: I couldn’t stop obsessing over the jeans that he was wearing.

SHARMILA: All of you people who dance can really learn from him. Dance is just another form of art, but we all are using our voice in dancing. I know it might not feel like that to some of you while you’re competing — maybe you’re not picking your solos — but you can start developing that. Watch how much he used his voice. Wasn’t it powerful? It was like art. There were messages and layers. I had already rewound and watched it three more times. Inspired by what he had to say with his voice. Inspired by the dancers, the visuals, the layers, the message.

Chapter 2: Body Positivity and Representation in Dance

SHARMILA: I loved that the dancers were — they were thicker dancers maybe — and you couldn’t tell, because they were wearing crop tops, a shirt, and baggy pants. I loved that there was no sexual over-sexualization of dancers. And even when SZA came out, she was kind of covered but still looked beautiful. I loved the male dancers too because they were just going off and just in their element.

JOHN: Do you feel it was maybe different because they were dancing and telling their own story? They were all, I’m pretty sure, Black men, people of color. Maybe that came into play.

SHARMILA: I think that was really powerful to see. There are not a lot of opportunities where you can see all Black, all people of color dancers like that. I felt motivated and inspired. I didn’t see any of that growing up. I never saw Filipinos on a professional stage, or Indians for that matter. I’m half Filipino, half Indian.

Chapter 3: Challenging Norms — Bollywood, Identity, and Belonging

JOHN: Sharmila was doing Bollywood back in the day — like 20 years ago.

SHARMILA: I want to be super clear — I am in no way trained in Bollywood dancing or classical Indian dancing. I was just trying to find something that resonated with me. And I was told that it was too cultural, too ethnic.

JOHN: Too cultural, too ethnic. Does that mean — too ghetto?

SHARMILA: Yeah, I’m sure. And I love it because I don’t ever have anybody I can talk to about messages like this. I don’t really feel like I have people I can go to to talk about it in the dance world. I just appreciate the opportunity to have an honest conversation with someone who’s another person of color. Don’t stop doing something just because it’s not cool. Two years later it was on So You Think You Can Dance and then it was cool.

JOHN: It’s similar to what Beyoncé brought up — we’re kind of forced into our genres. But don’t stop doing it. Find your community, because the dance competition world back then didn’t look like us.

SHARMILA: I feel it in my chest, in my heart. I feel it on the top of my head, in my forehead. Upper torso. It’s like aligning — aligning the head and the heart. What color is it? I think it’s a bunch of colors. Rainbow. Inside my studio, rainbows will just appear. I just call it a call sign now. We have everything rainbows in our studio. And also because I am a studio for all.

JOHN: And what does ‘for all’ mean? First of all, where is your studio?

SHARMILA: My studio is Core Arts Pilates in Anaheim Hills. When I say ‘for all’ I mean for everybody. We primarily have dancers — competition dancers. I have dance teachers, dance studio directors, professional and retired professional dancers. I have women who are non-dancers — I call them civilians. I have dancers of all backgrounds, dancers of color. I have people in the LGBTQIA+ community that I’m like, come to me because I want to work with you. You have a home here.

JOHN: Thank you for doing that, because I know that area is not as accepting of the LGBTQ+ community, especially now. To have that safe place must make them feel good.

SHARMILA: I want people to have a place where they can feel safe.

Chapter 4: The Long-Term Impact of Overstretching in Competitive Dance

JOHN: Why is forcing and overstretching harmful for a body like yours — or a kid like you?

SHARMILA: Such a great question. Muscles can stretch and go back. But ligaments and tendons — they stretch and they don’t go back. They create micro tears. You can have bigger tears, ruptures. If you’re forcing the joint into positions, those ligaments and tendons can’t keep that joint safe. So you’re on top of dancing, doing fast quick movements, directional changes — it allows for the joint to be unhealthy and unstable. That’s why we see so many sprains, fractures, breaks — common injuries with dancers.

SHARMILA: They used to have a noose that would hang from the bar and I’d have to do my splits — put my foot through that noose and do oversplits. My legs moving back and forth. It was an unstable force. So bad for my joints. And I have such bad joint pain now — in my hips, my pelvis. My knees are really creaky and unstable as a middle-aged adult. My ankles are hyper-flexible. I broke my foot in 2011 in three places. I had to get eight screws and two plates in my ankle. I don’t have the option to jump again. I cannot do grand battement.

JOHN: Do you feel the overstretching contributed to that?

SHARMILA: Beyond a shadow of a doubt.

JOHN: Wow. That’s even more important because it didn’t affect you when you were 16. It affected you in your 40s. And we were doing crazy things — a toe touch into straight middle splits, a scissor and landing in splits. We were just slamming it.

SHARMILA: I started teaching at 17. I had no business teaching at 17. My frontal lobe wasn’t in. I only learned how to teach from the way my teachers taught. And I don’t know if that was the healthiest. That’s where we are in every system these days — we’re trying to continue to do what we were taught when it didn’t work and when it hurt us. Rather than taking accountability and saying we need to move forward, people will defend it. Teachers make mistakes just like dancers make mistakes.

SHARMILA: I was always growing. It was only until I worked on myself that I realized there’s another way. I don’t have to be angry all the time.

JOHN: Was that when you went to college — around 2008?

SHARMILA: I think it was 2005 actually. I went and got a master’s degree in spiritual psychology. It was life-changing. And you were the first person I heard say ‘hold space.’ Back in like 2007. Everyone says it now, but you were saying it when you were giving privates — holding space for whatever someone was going through.

Chapter 5: Protecting Dancers’ Bodies During Competition Season

JOHN: How can dancers protect their body during competition season?

SHARMILA: Such a good question. First — get good sleep. Sleep well. And — this is controversial, people are going to say I’m crazy — you don’t have to fly on a plane every single weekend for a competition or convention. You can rest. You can just be a child and have fun.

SHARMILA: More tangibly: cross-train with someone knowledgeable. Look up who is training you — make sure they have a dance background, that they’re up to date on continuing education, that they have a degree or certification and it’s current. Second: if you are injured and it lasts more than 3 days, go to a PT — a dance-specific PT. Not just a general PT or a chiropractor. I like both. They each have their specialties. But go seek therapy from someone.

SHARMILA: Hip flexors gripping and firing up whenever you do anything — walking up stairs, a developé — they just grip and hurt all the time. I really believe GYROTONIC® is the only thing that releases the hip flexors. The only thing — combined with PT or chiropractic care. You have to understand why those hip flexors are gripping so much. We also get a lot of back issues, lower back pain, neck. If your neck is hurting, take a break.

JOHN: The dance community knows Pilates, but since Sharmila is always ahead of the game — holding space, Bollywood, now GYROTONIC®. What is GYROTONIC® to people listening?

SHARMILA: GYROTONIC® is something you should experience. It’s an exercise and conditioning method created by a retired dancer and gymnast. You’re moving three-dimensionally — moving functionally. How is it different from Pilates? Pilates is everything comes from the core — everything is initiated from the powerhouse. With GYROTONIC® you’re working your full flexibility, and you’re working your strength in that full flexibility. Pilates takes you to a certain level of flexibility. GYROTONIC® takes you further.

Chapter 6: How to Train Without Overstretching

JOHN: What do we as dance teachers do when dancers from studios that are overstretching are winning, and dance moms want their kids to look like that?

SHARMILA: As a dance teacher, I get it — you’re a little frustrated because maybe your kid isn’t winning. You’re feeling like you’re following your values but your values are falling short in the competition world. In that moment, you have to really figure out what your intention is. What is your goal? What do you want to achieve personally?

SHARMILA: I still stayed true to who I was. I would really try to evaluate what I want. Do I want to win? Or do I want to create healthy dancers who can win but also hold their artistic expression and creativity? Do I want to be a sought-after teacher? You have to define who you are in those moments. And I think there are teachers who create that without overstretching. I really love Francisco Gella’s philosophies. I try to be Switzerland when it comes to naming studios. There’s no such thing as a neutral thought, but — you can take from John Corella.

SHARMILA: The intention for first-timers going out: just get it on stage. You’ve got a costume. You have choreography. It doesn’t matter how you place. When you focus on that intention, you walk away feeling good. The problem is they give awards.

Chapter 7: Setting Intentions in Dance and Competition

SHARMILA: A lot of students have been to my intention workshop, have the intention journal. So I just ask — what is your intention? And sometimes they’ll say a negative — ‘I just learned my solo so my intention is just to remember it.’ And I’m like, really? Let’s talk about your personal excellence. What does your personal excellence feel like? Hitting everything. Good movement quality. Remembering corrections. Working on your face, channeling emotions. And what does that actually feel like? What are the senses?

JOHN: I want to do that right now. As a dance teacher at this competition: to remain calm is coming up. To support her and motivate her, inspire her.

SHARMILA: I love that. Now use intention language — ‘my intention is to’ or ‘I intend to.’

JOHN: My intention is to inspire.

SHARMILA: And get really clear. ‘My intention is to support, motivate, and inspire my dancer as she does her solo and works towards her personal excellence.’ Get really clear about what you want and how you want to be — no negative. And it has to be 50% believable. Part of you has to envision yourself achieving that intention. My husband and I do intentions all the time. We call it building. If we have a financial goal, I always ask: is that financial goal 50% believable?

SHARMILA: Can the win be making top five when you’ve never made top five? Because from there, if they achieve it, they’re like — oh my gosh, I believe in intentions. I have self-confidence. What else can I do? Everyone is too literal with winning when they get there. They all want first rather than thinking about the full scale of what winning is.

Chapter 8: Teaching Dancers to Advocate for Their Bodies

JOHN: For dancers — how can dancers advocate for their bodies with teachers and parents?

SHARMILA: This is such a big topic. First, we need to have empathy for our dancers. The very first thing we do at our studio is ask them to be present. I just say: how are you feeling today? I don’t know if anybody ever asks them. And they’ll tell me — ‘I’m a little tired. My back is hurting. My knees are doing something weird.’ I’m just bringing them back to the present.

SHARMILA: We’re always asking dancers to do it sick. Do it with the stomach flu. Do it while injured. Do it full out. Don’t baby. We don’t baby our dancers. It’s not babying them. It’s being there for them. We want to teach this generation to be able to speak up for themselves. To say: this is too much, or I can’t do this right now, or my back is hurting — instead of pushing through.

SHARMILA: I still have dancers who come to me 10, 15 years later — full-fledged moms, Broadway choreographers — who still come and take, or have lunch, or need support. They’re not done with me at 18. They want me for life.

Chapter 9: Integrating Spirituality with Dance Practice

SHARMILA: The Power of Intention for Dancers is available on Amazon. I knew I wanted to do something for a really long time. I was trying to time the publishing with the 19th anniversary of the studio but I couldn’t get it done — it was too much. I wanted to take my time and really be intentional with it. I’ve seen how the power of intention has changed my life, the people around me, my dancers — over the years.

SHARMILA: How do we redirect this for dancers? How do we get them to really believe in themselves? How do we get them the self-confidence they need to accomplish their goals? It wasn’t until I went to the University of Santa Monica for spiritual psychology that I truly understood intention work.

JOHN: You’re meshing spirituality with dance, with whatever you want to do in life — which is they’re not separate. On that note — who are some of the spiritual teachers who have inspired you?

SHARMILA: So many. Wayne Dyer, who wrote The Power of Intention. My professors — Drs. Ron and Mary Hulnick — have been very influential in my life. Reverend Michael Beckwith. I was supposed to teach him Pilates once. His assistant said he wasn’t coming to the appointment. ‘He’s at the UN.’ Okay, great excuse. And I was baptized — Self-Realization Fellowship. The temple at Lake Shrine.

SHARMILA: And I think this will help all dancers and dance teachers: dance competitions and conventions can feel very shallow and surface-level. But when you go to them and you can bring that spiritual side of you onto the stage — stage is spirit. The dancers you see — like Paula Van Oppen — yes, they are technically talented, but they’re tapping into something spiritual when they’re dancing. Don’t leave that out.

SHARMILA: And I’m going to bring her up — Athena Darage is a student of mine. She danced with Paula. She is now a Pilates instructor trained by me and started her own studio that’s very successful. She also worked as a professional dancer. She won the Spotlight Awards at the Music Center. Just an extraordinary human. I have the joy of seeing her every Thursday. It’s the energy of people and I think we sometimes forget all of that.

Chapter 10: Healthy Boundaries with Dance Parents

JOHN: How can dance teachers handle dance moms who cross boundaries?

SHARMILA: Know your boundaries. Set up what the expectation is. Have a meeting — studios do this every August or September. Set your rules. No parents in the studio if that’s what you want. This is when I want to be contacted during the week. Set your boundaries. I get emails from parents about things in the dance world that I have no business putting my nose into. I’m trying to work on your child in Pilates and GYROTONIC® and you’re emailing me all this stuff. Set up the boundary of how you want to be treated.

SHARMILA: For me: if there is any type of disrespect — disrespecting me, my staff, the way I teach, my education, anything we’re doing in the studio — and if I can look at the feedback and take responsibility for something we’re lacking, I will do that. But if you are just being disrespectful — any hint of it — I let them go. I return their money and let them go. It gives me less time to focus on what I need to be doing with my students in the studio.

Chapter 11: Knowing Your Worth as a Dance Teacher

JOHN: As dance teachers, studio owners — sometimes we feel our worth was not valued. What do we do, especially when we work for someone who pits us against other dance teachers?

SHARMILA: This definitely happened to me when I was a young teacher. In hindsight, I wish I had a mentor to help me through some of those things. I would call the teacher and the director in and just talk it out like decent human beings. And if I sensed it was a pattern making me miserable, I would leave. Because the energy was too toxic.

SHARMILA: And those comments from directors and studio owners about the work we do — ‘that’s too cultural, that’s stupid choreography’ — there’s no need for that disrespect. My ‘stupid choreography’ won you your first overall. I don’t want any of those things to have roots and anchors in me. Go where you’re valued.

JOHN: Dance teachers are choreographers, music editors, costume designers, psychologists, social workers. It’s so important for dance teachers to know their worth and know when they need to be getting paid. You can say: I have 10 minutes to talk to you about your child. If it goes beyond 10 minutes, this has to go into a coaching call. These are my rates.

SHARMILA: Know your worth. What we give is so valid. The emotional space. The ability of what we’re making your child do in dance. The way we get them on stage to become these incredible dancers. Know that your time is valuable. Just like a masseuse or a therapist — when you want my information, there is an hourly fee or a consulting fee. And then I’m more than willing to help you. If not, I’m going to give that time to something else where I am getting compensation.

Chapter 12: When Students Leave — Loss, Growth, and Forgiveness

JOHN: How do we handle when a student we’ve put our heart and soul into leaves and goes to another studio?

SHARMILA: Oh gosh. Some of the most painful things. I have such a different philosophy now as a studio owner. I just say — bless them and release them.

JOHN: But what do we do with our feelings?

SHARMILA: I hope that when you’re able to process your feelings with someone safe — whether it’s a friend, another dance teacher, or your therapist — you do that. It’s important to go to therapy. Especially in our community. It’s only human to feel sad, maybe depressed, because you’ve poured all this energy into it.

SHARMILA: Don’t let your hurt inner child take out rejected feelings on someone who left. Don’t let your hurt little child hurt a child. Just bless and release. I’ve definitely had things I would do differently when certain kids left because I was just hurt. I would be different now.

JOHN: Sharmila and I — we didn’t talk for a few years. Twelve years, everyone. Twelve years. And just forgiveness. Picking up the phone. Growing. There’s going to be hurt feelings along the way and forgiveness will get you through it.

SHARMILA: You were the one that called me. You had the courage to do that, and you apologized. And I really appreciate that you had done the work. Because then it allowed me to step forward into that feeling of forgiveness. And I apologize to you. Since then we’ve had such a wonderful friendship. I also just appreciate how connected and intuitive our conversations are and how healing it is — how we can be adults and work through things.

JOHN: When we have a problem or a hurt, we’ll bring it up. So you can do that with your dance teacher if it’s safe. And if it’s not safe — go find a safe dance teacher. If there’s hurt, work through it with forgiveness.

Rapid-Fire Questions

JOHN: Favorite dancer?

SHARMILA: Athena Sterig.

JOHN: Favorite choreographer?

SHARMILA: Dwight Rhoden.

JOHN: Favorite Broadway show?

SHARMILA: Rocky. Patrick was the fight coordinator. It was so good.

JOHN: Favorite style of dance?

SHARMILA: Contemporary.

JOHN: Favorite dance competition?

SHARMILA: Showbiz. I grew up in the Showbiz days.

JOHN: What’s one of the boldest things you’ve done?

SHARMILA: I’ve written a book about intention for dancers. The Power of Intention for Dancers. I’m still very shy about it all.

JOHN: Where can people get in contact with you?

SHARMILA: You can find me at coreartscenter.com. That’s our website. And you can find The Power of Intention for Dancers on Amazon. You can email us if you’d like to train with us in studio or online — we have online programs as well. And only if the energy is right. Those are the people we want. Because we’re not trends or fads. We’re classical Pilates and GYROTONIC® and dance medicine. For dancers.