While there’s pressure on the young team to live up to its reputation and carry on the legacy built by alumni, there’s also a sense of wonder and fun as they run the choreography over and over again into the late hours.

The hard work and dedication on display is in sharp contrast to the team’s motto: “It’s chill.”

“I like to think that we have a really healthy mix of both having fun and competing well,” said co-captain Sohum Rane.

Credit: Anila Yoganathan

Credit: Anila Yoganathan

Compete and connect

Bollywood fusion combines a variety of traditional Indian dances with elements of hip-hop, contemporary and pop for colorful, high energy performances. Other dance teams compete in traditional dance styles such as bhangra, a high energy dance from Punjab with a lot of jumping, shoulder movements and bended knees, and garba-raas, a Gujarati folk dance traditionally performed during the Hindu festival of Navratri.

Collegiate competitions have been around for decades but it’s growing in popularity, as demonstrated when Cornell Bhangra performed in last year’s Macy’s Day Parade. Today most major universities in the U.S. have Bollywood fusion teams competing for a slot in the Legends National Championship held each spring.

But there’s more than artistry and competition to these Indian-style dance teams. They are a way for people of Indian heritage growing up in America to connect with their culture. That connection plays out as teams work together to present elaborate dance sets that combine costumes, props, music, choreography, lighting and sound to tell a story in a traditional Indian way.

“Being South Asian American is a unique experience, and I feel like we don’t have a lot of creative outlets for sharing that experience. This is a way to do it,” said Akanksha Pandey, co-director for A-Town Showdown, a 12-year-old Atlanta dance competition coming up in March. “It’s really delving into the nuances and complexity within your own culture, but also blending it with things that you have picked up growing up in America.”

A learning experience

In India every region has its own culture. The food, languages and even religious practices vary and so do the dance styles. But the integral role dance plays in these regions is the same: to celebrate, connect and tell stories about their history and religion.

Through the years, the Indian collegiate dance sphere has evolved to both create a space for these students to showcase their culture and teach them skills for producing events.

“With something like A-Town Showdown, not only are you learning how to plan this large-scale event, but you’re also getting to know people from different teams,” said A-Town Showdown co-director Vaishnavi Vuyyuru. “You’re putting on a good time for like thousands of people.”

A-Town Showdown, which showcases both Bollywood fusion and garba-raas, will be held at Georgia Tech March 2. It is part of the Desi Dance Network, parent organization of the national competition Legends.

In Georgia, some of the most popular teams are UGA’s Asura and Georgia Tech’s Ramblin Raas and GT Qurbani, an all-male team that took first place at UGA India Night.

For some students, the culture has become so essential to college life that rising freshmen base their choice of schools in part on the reputation parent organization of the national competition., parent organization of the national competition Legends.

“I was just talking to some younger friends giving them advice about college and their decisions for colleges … had a significant influence from what dance teams were there,” said Rhea Singi, captain of all-girls team ATL Satrangi.

Rethinking their strategy

At the Legends national competition last year, Saazish’s dance theme was the Magic School Bus, based on the children’s TV show. Their music mix included samples from the TV show as the dancers told a story about searching for their teacher, Ms. Frizzle.

Dressed in school uniforms, the dancers showcased a variety of Indian and American dance styles as they took the audience on a journey incorporating a variety of dance styles including hip-hop, bhangra and Bollywood. Because of the team’s attention to detail and mastery of styles, Saazish placed third in the competition.

This year, Saazish is the only Georgia-based team competing at A-Town Showdown, and the pressure is on. Having struggled at their first performance of the season, ATL Tamasha, another Atlanta-based competition held in the fall, the captains and choreographers are rethinking their strategy for spring. Their main obstacle: They’ve got more young dancers than last year.

“Last year, when we did go to Legends, we had a lot of seniors, and the freshmen of that year, they only experienced winning,” said choreographer Minwoo Kim. “This year all those freshmen are now captains. And then they experienced loss at their first competition. So, I think it is definitely putting pressure on the team to relive that experience. But I think, slowly, the team is gaining more confidence as the set is coming together.”

Based on the judges’ comments at ATL Tamasha, the group decided it needed to help train younger dancers to play more to their strengths and find ways to stand out from the competition.

“We got really lucky with our DJ,” co-captain Mohnish Mistry said. “He primarily mixed for the actual bhangra circuit itself and not fusion teams … so I think that the mixes we got from him are very unique, and it’ll kind of help us to stand out against other teams.”

Credit: Shots On Shweta

Credit: Shots On Shweta

‘Closer to my culture’

Despite their limited familiarity with South Asian culture, Kim and Saazish co-captain Ngoc Le have embraced the Bollywood fusion circuit, attracted in part by how challenging it is. Both dancers have a background in hip-hop, which Saazish was seeking expertise in. Although there’s a similarity between the beats for bhangra and hip-hop, the styles are vastly different.

“As someone who’s always been dancing their whole life … to not pick something up immediately almost felt like … oh boy, I should try harder, I need to try harder in this style. So that challenge was really fun for me,” Le said.

Le was one of the first women to join Saazish last season. The team was established in 2016 as an all-men’s team, but leaders saw that having women on the team could be an asset. Their decision paid off as the women not only brought excellent technical skills to the stage, but they also pushed the men to up their game.

“It also brought some healthy competition,” Mistry said.

It’s not unusual for South-Asian girls living in the U.S. to attend dance academies to learn classical Indian dances or Western styles like ballet or hip-hop. For Indian boys, that opportunity is not always there. But Indian culture doesn’t discriminate when it comes to gender and dance, so having these circuits allows for Indian men to also connect with their culture in college.

Saazish member Rohit Menon grew up watching Tamil movies with his parents, “but I never really knew much about kuthu or how powerful South Indian Dance can be,” he said. “I feel like just that alone has helped bring me closer to my culture.”