Meet Soul Beats
Origins of Soul Beats
Learning to play music requires focus and dedication, self-awareness, regular practice and the guiding hands of a teacher.
Wait, this is exactly what building a yoga practice requires!
For me, it’s no surprise that these activities engage very similar mental and physical processes. Immersing myself into either of these practices ultimately is a form of meditation. It brings me joy and happiness. It unites the mind and body. It is an invigorating experience every time I do it. So I invite you to start your own journey.
The path is not easy, for sure. There will be frustration. There will be mistakes … and also sweat and tears.
But if you keep up with your journey, the reward is quite exhilarating.
Meet Ajay
Ajay Dholakia is an engineer and technologist by training, and a musician and certified yoga teacher by passion.
Ajay Dholakia is a certified and registered yoga teacher, teaching various levels from beginner basics to gentle-flow to slow-flow to full-on vinyasa flows.
He enjoys working with people looking to start their practice. He incorporates elements of pranayama, selected pose transitions and meditation to help individuals build and grow their own practice.
He offers classes both on-line and in person for individuals as well as groups.
Ajay received his yoga teacher training with Stacy Smith, founder of Yoga Unlimited. He continues building his own practice through participation in workshops held by various teachers including Bernie Clark, Subhash Mittal and others.
Soul Beats brings people together for building a practice of joyfulness through union of music and movement.
We offer and promote learning, teaching and practice of music and yoga in individual and group settings. Events are organized to experience these art and life forms, separately and in confluence.
Special Events
In addition to event, Ajay also offers weekly classes.
All levels are welcome.
Ajay’s Tabla Roots
Ajay has been teaching tabla for many years. He enjoys working with beginners as well as intermediate level students of all ages. His aim is to instill the joy of playing tabla both as a solo and an accompanying instrument.
He comes from a family of Indian Hindustani Classical musicians and has been learning, playing and teaching Tabla for many years.
His love for tabla has been supported by many teachers throughout his life. He started learning tabla in his childhood from his uncle, Pt. Nalin Dholakia. During high-school days in Indore, India, he had the opportunity to learn from Pt. Sharad Khargonkar. After coming to Raleigh, NC for graduate studies, he continued learning from U. Hafiz Hussain. More recently, he has taken lessons from Pt. Ramdas Palsule. He continues his tabla learning journey under Pt. Anubrata Chatterjee, son and disciple of Pt. Anindo Chatterjee.
During his graduate school days at NC State University in Raleigh, he played percussion and tabla with different rock, fusion and folk music bands.
Over the years, he has accompanied many local and visiting Indian classical vocalists and instrumentalists, as well as gazal and sugam sangeet singers. He has also provided live accompaniment on tabla for Kathak dance performances. He has done many guest performances with The Wiley Fosters, a Durham-based hip hop band.