Joya was born in Mumbai, raised in the Bay Area where she began professionally dancing at the age of eight, and moved to LA in 2012 to continue her professional career in dance & choreography after studying Theatre & Dance with an Emphasis in Choreography & Production Management with a double major in Political Science and a minor in Managerial Economics at UC Davis. A student of Indian Classical Dances for 30+ years, she has come to be known for her ability to bridge the gap between Indian Classical and Commercial dance styles without sacrificing authenticity or quality. Her dance training includes Kathak, Bharatnatyam, and Odissi with training under the classical world’s most prestigious Gurus, Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, Pandit Birju Maharaj, and Guru Bandana Sen. Aside from Indian Classical dances, she has studied Ballet, Jazz, Modern, Contemporary, Hip-Hop and Salsa.

With 24+ years of teaching experience, she is the first to bring South Asian dance to the Commercial Dance Program at the Orange County School for Arts. Joya has instructed workshops at Stanford, FIDM, and has taught her sold out Master Classes internationally.  While in college, Joya founded Toofan, UC Davis’s very first competitive Hindi Film Dance Team, in 2006. She has since been quoted to be one of the “top collegiate Bollywood Hindi Film Dance Leads of all time” and “the UC Davis lead who stole hearts” as a two time “Best Female Dancer” winner.

​

Joya produced Shake Dance Tour in 2014, the first touring dance convention promoting World Dance Education, which received Commendation from the City of Milpitas for “unique and unparalleled contributions of Dance Arts to the community”. She was awarded The Leela Institute for the Arts Fellowship for promising artists, teachers, and cultural ambassadors to aid in placing quality arts educational programming in classrooms, a first for any dancer in the commercial entertainment industry.