Vikas Arun - Pro Dancer on Blending Bharatanatyam with Tap Dance & Representation as a Gay South Asian Male

Vikas is a groundbreaking tap dancer that has performed on So You Think You Can Dance, done commercials for J. Crew and Vogue, and is the first South Asian artist-in-residence at the American Tap Dance Foundation. Aside from performing, Vikas teaches at the Broadway Dance Center and is a guest lecturer at Columbia University. Most recently, he founded Project Convergence with Ramita Ravi, a dance company that blends Tap Dance with Bharatanatyam. Outside of dance, Vikas is an Ivy League engineer currently working on real-time data collection for guns. In this episode, Vikas shares the perspective on risk that allowed him to pursue a career as a full-time dancer, and why the best projects for his resume have not always been the most interesting. He reflects on the importance of representation from the perspective of a South Asian gay male in the Western dance world. Lastly, Vikas explains why he decided to pick up an engineering job, it’s impact on his career as a dancer, and how his work has been affected by the recent focus on guns.