A Dance and Fitness Instructor based in Mumbai, Priya feels that it’s essential to keep working hard and keep progressing in life as a little progress is better than no progress.

Priya Pankaj is the Co-founder of IX Dance and Fitness Academy in Mumbai. She founded the academy with her husband as a co-founder.

Priya was born and raised in Mumbai. She received her entire formal education in Mumbai itself. After completing her post graduation, she did a Bachelor in commerce n PG Diploma in Business Management.

Priya shares that after completing her formal education she worked in the corporate sector for many years. However, after some time, she realized that though she earned quite well, she lacked inner satisfaction doing her job. After her wedding, she decided to quit her job and follow her childhood passion for Fitness and Training.

Priya feels that nowadays choreographers and fitness trainers are given respect in society as opposed to earlier times when people would have to face challenges to pursue Dance and Fitness as their profession.

Talking about her challenges, Priya says that hailing from a South Indian family where completing education first and then getting a white collar job are put on the top priority, it was not easy for her to leave her well paying corporate job. But she says that challenges in life are inevitable if you want to do something different.

Priya thinks that whatever one does in life, one’s Education plays a crucial role in that. She says that your education makes you intelligent and wise and also enables you to stand out in the crowd. And to aspiring fitness trainers she advises them to also complete their formal education besides following their passion for Fitness.

In her spare time, Priya likes to draw, read books, travel and spend time with her family.

Talking about Covid, Priya says that the pandemic was quite an uncertain time for everyone. She had to face some challenges on the professional front as all the gyms and fitness centers were shut. However, she took to online mode of training her clients and thus was able to keep going even during such tough times.

If she could go back in time via a Time Machine, Priya would want to relive her school days which were the most carefree and joyous days of her life.

Priya thinks that it takes a lot of time and effort to achieve something in life. Therefore, she advises the youth of today to keep working hard toward their goals despite failures.