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Kumari Suraj is a non-binary, multidisciplinary artist, creative powerhouse, and cultural architect whose work has shaped underground and mainstream creative worlds for over two decades. Working across performance, movement, music, multimedia curation, and cultural production, Kumari is widely recognized as a pioneer of the early-2000s Waacking resurgence - an LGBTQ+ club dance form born in the Black, Latinx, and Asian gay clubs of 1970s Los Angeles.
...Read moreKumari Suraj is a non-binary, multidisciplinary artist, creative powerhouse, and cultural architect whose work has shaped underground and mainstream creative worlds for over two decades. Working across performance, movement, music, multimedia curation, and cultural production, Kumari is widely recognized as a pioneer of the early-2000s Waacking resurgence - an LGBTQ+ club dance form born in the Black, Latinx, and Asian gay clubs of 1970s Los Angeles.
They are the founder of the world’s first queer dance festival dedicated to Waacking culture, LA’s Waack, Punk, Pose Festival (Waackfest), and a West Coast Ballroom Kiki Legend who played a foundational role in developing ballroom communities in both the Pacific Northwest and India.
An artistic force and cultural game-changer, Kumari has influenced the entertainment industry and underground dance communities alike, shaping creative ecosystems from Hollywood to Bollywood and beyond. Their work and cultural leadership have been featured on HBO's Legendary, the main stage of UK Black Pride, SYTYCD and in global publications including The New York Times and Vogue India, which named them one of the “Top 50 Most Influential Global Indians.”
Of Afro-West Indian, South Asian, Native American, and European heritage, Kumari’s practice is shaped by a life lived across cultures, continents, and communities. Across all disciplines, their work bridges worlds-centering marginalized voices, stewarding cultural lineage with integrity, and creating spaces where creativity, care, and collective power can thrive.
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Class Descriptions
Created in 2009 by Kumari Suraj as a way of connecting with their South Asian roots, Bollywaack is a cross-cultural dance style blending Indian classical and folk traditions - including Bollywood, Bhangra, Kathak, and Bharatanatyam - with Waacking, the queer disco dance born in the Black and Latinx clubs of 1970s Los Angeles. The style combines dramatic armwork, expressive storytelling, and intricate hand gestures to create a bold dialogue between heritage and queer club culture.
Bollywaack gained global visibility in 2017 when Kumari and House of Suraj introduced Vogue, Waacking, and Bollywaack to national television in India on Dance Plus 3, performing original productions for over one billion viewers across 150 countries. Since then, the style has influenced Bollywood choreography, music videos, and dance training worldwide, connecting mainstream audiences with queer dance lineages.
Kumari Suraj is widely recognized as a blueprint and pioneer of the early-2000s resurgence of Waacking, an LGBTQ disco dance born in the Black and Latinx clubs of 1970s Los Angeles. As one of the first dancers to upload Waacking choreography to YouTube in 2006–2007, they helped ignite global interest in the style and launched an international teaching & performance career spanning more than 43 countries.
In 2011, Kumari brought Waacking into American households as the first choreographer of the style featured on So You Think You Can Dance. During the resurgence era, they also helped develop structured Waacking drills that translated club knowledge into teachable pedagogy. Their work has been taught at institutions including Broadway Dance Center, Millennium Dance Complex, and the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance.
Today the vocabulary of Waacking appears across social media, concerts, competitions, music videos, and commercial stages worldwide - with much of its renewed visibility tracing back to Kumari’s advocacy, teaching, and cultural stewardship since the early 2000s.