the Rice Thresher

Issue date: 5/15/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Courtesy Monique Gill With a first-place finish at Nasha 2009, a dance competition held at the University of Houston, the Rice-based dance group Chowl Bhangra now heads to the Festival of India, the toughest test in Texas.

Catching on to the dance fever, the Rice Chowl Bhangra team earned its place in fame by securing first place at Nasha 2009, a state-wide competition in traditional Punjabi dances held at the University of Houston on April 10.

Chowl Bhangra, which means Rice Bhangra in Punjabi, competed against six other collegiate and dance academies in Texas, placing first overall.

Each routine is six-eight minutes long and choreographed by students, headed up by Wiess College senior Monique Gill, Sukhdeep Kaur (Wiess '09) and Abhinav Khanna (Will Rice College '09).

Gill said she and her teammates had been exposed to Punjabi dances since they were young.

"For the three of us it's something we grew up with," Gill said.

Bhangra commemorates special occasions, Gill said.

"When you have a harvest, they would celebrate and dance," Gill said. "And now it celebrates anything."

Khanna and Lovett College junior Arindam Sarkar said what made their dance unique is the added elements of hip-hop dance moves, such as the Soulja Boy, which the team performed midway through the dance.

Sarkar said that instead of swaying from tradition, these modern dance moves augmented the spirit of the dance.

"Recently I feel there has been a reflux back to traditional elements, but there are some teams that will throw in a Western beat to a super traditional Bhangra song, and I feel that's something we can easily incorporate into our routine," Sarkar said. "It's not detracting from the tradition of Bhangra, but at the same time it is accomplishing the aforementioned purposes of appealing to a hipper audience."

Khanna describes their dance routine as a celebration of the harvest that is upbeat, energetic and folksy.

"At one point we had a couple of dancers jump off the stage and dance near the judges' table," Khanna said. "It was more interaction with the audience and something different to get them excited."

Sarkar said competing against teams that are deeply traditional Indian classical or very contemporary and Western can only attract one type of audience or judge.

Continued...

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