N now setting dwide crown
ties and teach youths Indian classical dance through the said organization.
The self-described humanitarian plans to execute her platform in three major ways.
Firstly, in an effort to have high levels of professional performances she will be in Guyana in July to perform a Bharatanatyam (a dance of Tamil Nadu in Southern India) piece and execute the various forms. Secondly, she will be teaching the students not just the technical skills of the art form but also many transferrable skills like poise, dedication, commitment and learning to have stage presence.
According to her all of these are skills that students take through their lifetime and put towards their careers.. Finally, she hopes to later train instructors in Bharatanatyam, in music and drama so that it doesn’t just remain at the Nirvana Centre
but can be taught in smaller pockets in Region Three and hopefully expand to other areas.
She recalled that in July 2012 and August 2014 she taught a two-weeklong intensive workshop of Bharatanatyam to the youth in communities surrounding the Nirvana Centre.
During 2014-2016 when the Nirvana administration roles were limited, she took to teaching the children at the Nirvana Centre via Skype every Saturday mornings.
“A lot of time and monetary donations have been given to my community in Guyana. A lot of time goes into planning the shows as well as rehearsals for them, preparing all of the local actors and actresses who also volunteer their time. We put on plays and shows to raise funds to support global needs such as earthquakes and medical cases as well as to support the local and international Indo-Caribbean community. We promote Indo-Caribbean arts such as music, dance and drama. We perform in Canada (Toronto), USA (New York, Florida) and Guyana (West Coast), South America prominently. The funds generated in these areas go to support respective local initiatives,” she said.
Canada
Sangeeta was born in Canada and first visited Guyana when she was eleven and was immediately smitten by the people and their deep-rooted culture resulting in her returning over the years when school was out. This led to her becoming a naturalized citizen. Academically Sangeeta pursued studies at the Brock University where she attained a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Business Communications.
Growing up Sangeeta wasn’t pageant conscious. She was always into sports but felt she developed the values required to be a part of pageantry and saw it as a platform to promote her cause. Among the sports she participated in were soccer, touch football, volleyball and track and field. Apart from that she threw herself into her education, dancing and her humanitarian work.
“My role model first and foremost would be my mom….she’s the person who has taught me a lot of the foundational things I know and she is my number one supporter no matter what. If she thinks that it’s something that I might have a little bit of difficulty with she’s always there to support me and push me on and say ‘yes you can do this, you can achieve this, go for it’. She’s always there to say ‘experience different things in life’; she has a really open mind and from that I’m then able to grow and have the mindset that I have…is really from her teaching”, the new queen said.
All through the competition before every segment she went to take blessings from her mother. Although the final segment for her was a bit nervewracking, she kept reminding herself to stay calm and try not to think ahead but be herself and whatever question is given to her to answer honestly.
So when the question for the pageant finalists ended up being : “If you will be winning the crown tonight what will be the very first thing that you will do?”, her response was that she’d go bow at her mother’s feet and take her blessings thanking her for her love and support and guidance. That was the first thing that came to her mind she said.
Speaking about this and her mother made her emotional and brought tears to her eyes and the eyes of the beloved lady she spoke of who sat nearby throughout our interview.
Her other role models would be here gurus (teachers) because of her relationship with them and the philosophies and knowledge they would have imparted to her. Had she the opportunity to meet someone who has been a great philosopher, it’d be the great Mahatma Gandhi.
“….he’s such an influential person and not only for religion but also for the development for people and he fought and stood for a lot of righteous things and even though he passed people may think that his death was in vain but I think he left a message that was very important; that you have to love humanity, you have to serve humanity because that’s why we’re all here because if we can’t help one another, who is going to help us. We have to be down-to-earth, we have to help each other move to the next level and that’s why I strongly believe in doing a lot of humanitarian work because if we are in a position to help others we most definitely should help….,” Sangeeta said.
She added that there are people who are very poor and need assistance to be given a chance to make it in this life.
“You never know what small gesture can influence or motivate somebody to learn something, move forward in their education or be a better person. I think it’s all a very big chain effect and if everyone can take that lesson and move forward with it, it would be huge for humanity”.
The eldest of three children, Sangeeta enjoys dancing, music, painting (acrylic paintings mostly sceneries), sketching, sculpting, photography, sports, reading self-development books (such as The Secret written by a number of authors including motivational speaker Bob Proctor), mountain biking, hiking, engaging in different cultures and traveling.
Starting from Monday she’ll be going on a strict workout and diet to prepare for the international leg of the pageant which is in five months’ time. As hard as that’ll be she certainly will take it as it comes. Troy.
In The Fade is not only Kruger’s first film in German, it is also the toughest.
“It’s probably the most emotional, hardest, physically challenging part I think I have ever played,” she said.
“Just holding that grief for this entire movie, the subject matter, obviously, physically being in every scene of a film, carrying a film like this was a first for me as well.”
It was at Cannes that the collaboration with Akin took root. When Kruger was on the festival jury in 2012, she sought him out to say she would like to work with him. When Akin proposed the lead role in In The Fade, she could not believe it.
“I actually thought, when I got the script, he was kidding. I was like: ‘How did you think about me for this?’ It’s definitely not the typical kind of part I usually get offered.”
Akin’s gritty realist style strips Kruger of any Hollywood glamour, and the grief and anger of her situation is etched onto her face.
For both actress and director, the film is timely and personal.
“Given the times we living in, I feel there this permission of being horrible to each other, of violence, of prejudice,” said Kruger, adding that she had witnessed Islamophobic abuse - central to the film - on the New York subway.