In a crowded hall at Japan Expo this year, Hardy Singh's feet did all the talking. Surrounded by an audience that barely understood Punjabi but instinctively felt the rhythm, the Dubai-based bhangra artist spun, leapt, and grinned his way through a performance that ended with thunderous applause. But even before that, Hardy and his troupe were touring countries where Bhangra could come off as a culture shock.

Hardy is, by now, a familiar name on stages few would expect to hear bhangra. Videos of his workshops in Colombia and his Japan Expo performance have run through timelines and playlists; Paris crowds have cheered him on; festivals from Untold in Dubai to luxury brand events have given his troupe space on international lineups. He's taken something rooted in Punjab and turned it into a global invitation. And he started from Dubai.

“I think the first instance in my life, if I recall,” he tells City Times, reflecting on his first memory of bhangra.“One would be - because it's such a cultural dance form that we have - it's in our culture because whenever my birthday used to be celebrated at home, my mom, dad, all my cousins, my uncles, everyone would be enjoying it. And I think that was my very first visual of seeing somebody perform this, and I would try to copy them - how they were raising their hands and legs.” That childlike mimicry, he says, is where everything begins:“So I think that was my first instance to just get into it.”

Hardy's Dubai story is part hustle, part practical lifescript and part cultural serendipity. He didn't grow up thinking bhangra would pay the bills.“No, I did not think it would be my profession at all. I have done my bachelor's in business and master's in finance and marketing - so I'm doing the opposite now.” After school, he took a job to fund university and stayed close to family. An uncle offered him part-time work in carpentry - and that work became a formative chapter.

“I started working when I was 18 years old,” he says, describing how he showed up after school and learned the trade.“I worked at the lower level for at least three years. I learned wooden work, electrical work, painting work - and eventually became a project manager.” The months on timber and tools weren't a detour; they taught him project management and people skills -“always listening first, not just being 'the boss'” - lessons he now applies to running a touring dance team.

From there, a college group that performed at university competitions slowly shifted into a multi-faceted bhangra outfit. They taught classes, took wedding gigs and corporate shows, and then started doing workshops.“We started giving classes in 2017,” he says, and in 2018, they introduced public workshops in Dubai. When the pandemic froze most lives, Hardy looked for ways to keep bhangra visible: he made Instagram stickers of bhangra moves that, he says,“have been viewed over a billion times.”

The breakout beyond the Gulf came when Hardy stopped treating bhangra as a local curiosity and began packaging it as an accessible, kinetic encounter.“People there didn't know much about bhangra - but once the dhol started, everyone was moving,” he recalls of Colombia. The Japan Expo workshop sold out in 24 hours; the audience of 40–45 Japanese attendees, he describes still registers as one of those“priceless” cultural pivots.“Japanese people are so calm, and idly watching, and when I'm asking them to join me and dance, they're also dancing. So, just that breaking that barrier of culture is one of the most priceless moments I have.”

Hardy's teaching method is as important as his showmanship. He credits his own mentor -“when I met him in 2013, and I learned from him in two years, his name is Sukhwinder Singh” - for shaping an educational structure that hands everything to students.“He basically made a replica of himself in me,” Hardy says, and that generosity is exactly how he approaches beginners: keep it joyful, simplify the steps, and celebrate imperfect movement.“Even if they're only hitting 70%, I tell them they're the best, and they're amazing, and I want them to be happy,” he says.

That openness explains why dancers in unexpected places have gravitated to his classes: from Parisians to South Americans who“were going as much as to even dress up as Indians and come.” Hardy believes dance is a“universal language” - and the footage from his tours proves it.

Yet the global run hasn't been without friction. Hardy is candid about the grind:“It took me at least 11 or 12 years, to just make the world know, that Hardy Singh is a brand.” Financial instability, competition, and being seen as“just dancers” rather than headline acts were recurring hurdles. Organisers sometimes treated dance troupes as expendable -“we'd be ready to perform and just five minutes before we would be told, 'oh you are cancelled.'” Those moments hardened his resolve to create a performance identity that stands alone.

His ambitions are big, and not only for the clout. Hardy has already visited 57 countries across six continents and has a playful, high-aiming goal: Antarctica remains the last continent on his list.“Once I can step there and dance, I think I'll become the first dancer in the world, to have been danced on every continent,” he says, adding with a grin that a sponsor like Red Bull could make it possible.

For now, he juggles bookings, trains daily and keeps the core of bhangra intact: its energy, its communal lift, and the simple rule he returns to again and again - smile while you move.

“It's the global music,” he says of the track (Mundian Toh Bach Ke, you know the tune) that often welcomes new students,“and I danced on that song in Times Square.”

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