Rice's Indian dance team snags first place

By Cindy Dinh     5/14/09 7:00pm

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.

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"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.

"You have to have something that attracts a wider range of audience," he said. "When you incorporate more Western elements that all the audience members can enjoy and get pumped up, reciprocally, we get pumped up."

Gill said incorporating the audience, adding elements from contemporary music and having coordinating costumes made Chowl Bhangra stand out.

"We try to present the culture the way we understand it but we also try to interpret it and express it on our own," Sarkar said. "We're not farmers from Punjab. We're students here at Rice so we're not necessarily going to stick to the traditional."

This year the team was designated as a club sport and has turned its focus to competitions. The team has competed and performed at eight different events this year alone, including the cultural shows hosted by the Rice South Asian Society, Gill said.

With colorful uniforms personalized with the signature Rice "R" embroidered on the back, Sarkar said Chowl Bhangra wanted to make heads turn this year. Everything about the fabric and creation of the garments is more traditional and personalized, Gill said. She said the six pairs of co-ed dancers had the same uniforms ranging in color from bright pink and yellow to deep purple and blue, which added to the vibrant look of the dance.

Besides winning a trophy and accolades, placing in this competition qualifies the team to compete in Festival of India, the largest intercollegiate, state-wide talent competition, Sarkar said.

"Rice has never been involved in that, especially since we're small to other schools like University of Texas in terms of the talent pool," Sarkar said. "It'll at least put us [Rice] on the map, which [for me] is the most significant accomplishment.

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