Jainil Mehta aka @jainil_dreamtodance is going viral because of his colourful dance routines that have taken the streets of New York by storm. Jainil started his journey as a dancer when he was a young boy. And he has come a long way since, with even getting a degree in dance from USC Kaufman School of Dance. But instead of keeping this artform just to himself, he decided to share it with the world. And that’s how he started his Instagram journey, and also taking dance classes. Jainil now has over 120k followers on Instagram, and he shares graceful dance videos with his followers on a daily basis. Jainil has been featured in most national news outlets and everyone’s taking notice of him now.
https://www.scoopwhoop.com/news/indian-man-is-dancing-wearing-skirts-to-make-clothing-more-inclusive
https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/man-wearing-skirt-dances-on-pushpa-song-internet-excited-2885141
Jainil had no real plan of becoming an influencer but things happened very organically for him. “In May 2019 when I posted about my first class, I had only 5 people register for it, and I was really disappointed. I was hoping for at least 10 people and I remember feeling lost. Around the same time, social media and especially Instagram was really booming, And I was taking the example of Team Naach and I thought ‘wow they have grown so much in 2 years only through social media’. So, I started posting videos on my Instagram which had only about 1,100 followers at the time. And then, one of my videos on YouTube kind of blew up and people started following me and taking notice. That’s where I got my initial following from. A couple of collaborations happened as a result of that and my followings started increasing. I collaborated with Nicole Concessao from Team Naach, and that’s really how my page took off,” says Jainil.
Beyond social media
The social media influencer says that dance is not just about Instagram and YouTube for him, but it is his full time career and that’s why it makes him so happy when people appreciate his videos online. “A studio owner in US once told me that people who come to register for dance classes ask how many followers the teacher has on social media. And that surprised me because I had no idea about that. So, social media is not just for the sake of it for me, it helps further my real passion for dance. Instagram has helped me with my classes and getting more students so I am thankful for that. My whole social media game is about education and propagating dance as a subject for higher studies or promote dance education in India especially in colleges etc.,” says the dance blogger.
#Meninskirts
Jainil posts several dance videos of himself wearing beautiful, elaborate skirts. He says that this has a really personal story behind it. “As a child, I used to lock myself up in a room and take my mom’s heels and dance in them. Through the years, I stopped doing that, but my education in dance in LA has been really open minded in the sense that it taught me that men can do whatever they want and so can women. There were never any restrictions here about how men should dance or how women should dance. And it was very eye opening. So, I try to do that even in my dance classes. And I love flairy costumes, and have always loved the idea of skirts. Of course, I never wore them in my day to day lives and I am still a little hesitant probably because of how people perceive it. But I think Instagram was an outlet to help me overcome my inhibitions and people are receiving it very well instead of hating it,” says the Indian influencer.
He says that #Meninskirts started from a locked room and is now out there for the entire world to see and appreciate, But ask him if he ever had any inhibitions about dancing in skirts, and he says he didn’t. “I never had inhibitions about dancing in skirts or even dancing in general, but yes, I had doubts when my videos weren’t reaching that many people. I never do trends on Instagram, and initially, when I didn’t do trends, my videos didn’t have that reach, so that kind of worried me. But otherwise, I never really felt awkward about posting dance videos in general. It really didn’t matter to me if I wore a skirt,” says Jainil.
We love that Jainil is breaking several gender stereotypes with his dance series #meninskirts. We hope to see more unique and groundbreaking work from him in the near future!
Jainil is managed by Chtrbox Represent, the talent representation division of Chtrbox. Chtrbox Represent is proud to help power some of India’s top influencers who are category experts across fashion, beauty, travel, lifestyle, tech and more.