Meet the New Teacher: Vallary Lokre

Cross Campus Head of Dance

Vallary Lokre earned a Bachelor’s in Economics from St Xavier’s College in Mumbai but it was her love of social dancing that guided her to take part in competitive dancing and teach dance. She is currently finishing her Master’s in Education from Framingham State University in the US after retiring from competitive dancing a few years ago.

A Love of Dance

“I started work at an international school here in Bangkok but have spent the last ten years teaching in dance studios and dance academies in India. I retired from competitive Latin American Dance Sport only three years ago.”

“I always loved dancing as a child and trained in classical dance when I was very young, but because of family pressure wanting to focus on academics. I started learning other styles as a hobby in university including social dance and Latin American Dance Sport. However, I took a year off after graduating to preparing for my GRE and study abroad to pursue Master’s in Economics. During that year I was dancing a lot more and teaching dance. That year really defined it for me. I knew that pursuing a Master’s in Economics would mean I left dancing. It didn’t feel right to leave dancing. When it came down to choosing between Economics or Dance, I chose Dance as it was really my love and passion.”

“It took a lot of courage for me to go back to dancing; when you are a young person it is very hard to make that choice unless you are 100 percent backed up by parents and teachers. I know its not easy for young people to choose things based solely on their passion and their interest. Often they go for what we think is more valuable to them especially since the system we live in values economics and how academics enable to you work in particular sectors.”

Offering Excellence in the Dance Academy

“The best thing for me is that Bangkok Patana is a non-profit school. That aligns for me that education is not-for-profit business. I am really happy to be here where you see how much there is for the development of the kids; every project is very well supported by the school. It gives us as teachers the opportunity to expand our imaginations, we are pushed to try new things and things we weren’t thinking was possible.”

“The Dance programme at Bangkok Patana is huge, we have over 250 students in the Academy. The most amazing thing for me is that it offers me the opportunity to train students for excellence, to help them in competition and showcases. That is really motivating for students. Generally, it’s difficult to get students to practice, but the system here makes it easier for the dance teacher to train students as they are required to attend a certain number of classes when they sign up for Dance. The specialised programme here makes it very good for the students who are passionate about dance to pursue it, it isn’t downplayed. For me, the great thing is that I’ve been told to try what I want to even if its difficult. So, I am looking forward to the future, for example, overseas competitions when they open. There is no limit to what I can do here to help the kids achieve their passions. I think its great that it is not just the traditional sports that are being given importance but also Dance.”

The Importance of Well-being

“What I really love about Bangkok Patana is the importance that the school places on well-being, it is one of the school’s core values and it is one my personal values. That our values are aligned makes it easier for me to teach and incorporate self-care practices in class for my students. Normally we don’t learn about it and when we grow up as adults we have stress and mental health issues because well-being is never considered as important for a child to have while at school. If we don’t take care of well-being of the students that can also be a roadblock to their learning.”