TikToker Manisha Singh also known as ‘Swaggarherself’ has been dancing for some seven years. She is a skilled Hip Hop, Chutney, Bollywood, Freestyle, and Dancehall dancer.
Manisha was profoundly influenced by the Hollywood movie Step Up, which left her fascinated with Hip Hop and she began trying a few moves. It did not take her long to realize that dancing was her thing and it soon became part of her daily life. She practiced Hip Hop techniques in the privacy of her room and spent hours watching dance tutorials on YouTube.
Asked which of the genres she was the most difficult to learn, Manisha said Freestyle sharing that this dance is very fast and unless you can already dance and are active at it, it is almost impossible for your moves to be in sync with the rhythm.
Once she had learned Hip Hop, Manisha began practicing other genres and was soon participating at various school events. The first time she stepped outside of dancing for her school was at a fundraiser event held at the Albion Sports Ground in Corentyne where she danced to the popular Bollywood hit “Desi Girl”.
Manisha is the younger of two sisters who grew up on the Corentyne. Life was no bed of roses for the sisters who lost their mother to suicide when Manisha was three years old. She does not remember much of the woman who gave birth to her but lives off of whatever little her older sister shares of their mother. After their mother passed on, they went to live with an aunt and grandmother. Her relatives she said are among her biggest supporters.
She attended Albion Nursery and Primary, and Lower Corentyne Secondary schools. She was always the tomboy, explaining that girls were too much drama and therefore she preferred the company of boys. Manisha laughed as she said she was talkative as well and spent lots of her free time playing sports with the boys.
Manisha believes she may have been the first Guyanese to join TikTok which she did back in 2014, when the app was called Musical.ly, before it was merged with another of the company’s products called TikTok in 2015 and later assumed the name TikTok. Back in 2014, the users of Musical.ly did more lip syncing and transition videos, but after TikTok came on board more dance videos were introduced.
“When I first joined the app, most people were lip syncing but there were some persons who were dancing and I said I want to represent Guyana and show the rest of the world that as Guyanese we can dance just as amazing. I hope to one day make Guyana proud,” Manisha said.
To date, she has a whopping 182,000-plus followers and these increase every day. People from all across the globe are following Manisha on TikTok. Some of the countries where her followers are based include Canada, the US, Brazil, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and of course Guyana.
Manisha shared that she has received her fair share of negative feedback, but said she lives for her fans who are the main reason she keeps on dancing. From 2014 to now, Manisha has uploaded close to 7,000 videos and uploads sometimes five or more videos a day. Asked how many hours of dancing she puts in, the young woman said nothing less than eight per day. She does her own choreography, coming up with dance combinations in a matter of minutes.
While she can skillfully dance five genres, Manisha said it was Chutney that gained her a lot of fans. She confided that she regrets not starting Chutney dancing on TikTok sooner.
Manisha is currently in Canada. She flew there three months ago and is stuck there, unable to return home because of the pandemic. Though she misses home, being away has not prevented her from putting on a show for her fans.
“Dancing is what makes me happy. My fans are always looking out for new stuff. I dance for them,” she said.
Being a dancer and a TikTok sensation means one should have thick skin as it is never easy. The world is watching and but no matter what happens, it is important to keep one’s head held high and strive for one’s dreams, she added.
Dancing, Manisha said, has built her self-confidence. She remembers at one time she was too shy to dance in public but now she does this with ease. Aside from boosting her self-esteem, she added, dancing is a good way to exercise and keeps her active. She hopes to someday make it big internationally outside of TikTok. Opening a dance school is on the list of things she intends to do.
Once she returns to Guyana, Manisha will go back to working with her aunt assisting her with her business. She plans on someday soon venturing into her own business, possibly makeup artistry as she became a certified makeup artist under the remarkable Vincent Shelto.
When she is not dancing, the Aquarius-born 21-year-old likes to play video games, watch Tom and Jerry cartoons, and sing, though she admits that she only sings to herself, as she is not yet comfortable singing in front of an audience.
A Guyanese to the bone, Manisha loves seven curry and chicken curry.
She can be followed on TikTok and Instagram @Swaggarherself, and on YouTube at Real Swaggarherself.
