Dancing with the Owls

By Amelia Davis     2/4/25 10:53pm

It can feel hard to fit in exercise as a student outside of joining an intramural sports team or running Baker 13 in an effort to recoup some high-school sprinter glory. However, though the dance community at Rice may be subtle, its offerings are vast and diverse. 

Dance groups range from casual to intensive, with some focusing on cultural dance. Rice Riyaaz, a Bollywood fusion group competes across the nation in two circuits known as Legends and Bollywood America. 

Team member Naisha Mekala said the breadth of styles that Riyaaz members study sets them apart from other dance teams. Members spend seven hours practicing each week, and even more  in the spring prior to competition season.

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“We learn a variety of dance styles like hip-hop, bollywood, bhangra, South Indian, contemporary and classical Indian dance. We combine all of these styles in our competition sets,” Mekala, a Lovett College sophomore, said. “​It's really fun to create a set that is fun and creative while also forming our own community.”

Unlike Riyaaz, many of the dance teams at Rice do not formally compete. Rice Dance Theatre is one of these —  instead of practicing for a final competition, there is a showcase every semester with student-choreographed performances of up to twenty-eight pieces. 

Avery Janenda, RDT’s president, said that the main reason dancers join RDT is the opportunity to perform at an advanced level. 

“Since Rice doesn't have a dance program, I think that we're one of the more serious dance clubs on campus,” Janenda, a McMurtry College junior, said. “Dancers who audition – [there’s] usually a lot of dancers who were competitive in high school, and are interested in pursuing it on a higher level without going into a profession, because most of our dancers are not looking to become professional dancers.” 

The group of forty dancers can commit as much time to the organization as they are motivated to – though the group requires three hours of practice a week, some choose to put up to ten hours a week into training. Rice Dance Theatre hires local dance teachers twice a week in a variety of styles, though mostly in the contemporary genre. Instead of relying solely on school support or alumni donations to fund these lessons, most of the money is made by the dancers themselves. 

“It's just kind of been built up over the years. We try not to lose any money throughout the year,” Janenda said. “We make a lot of money during our showcase, selling tickets for students and for parents who want to come in out of town – then a lot of our money goes towards paying our teachers. So, we try to have a net zero from the end of the semester.” 

Another dance team on campus is the official Rice Dance Team, which is heavily affiliated with Rice’s athletics program and has the benefit of two official coaches. Currently, the team cheers at Rice football and basketball games. The close association with Rice athletics is a significant draw for some members of the team, says team member Mishel Dhanani. 

“I'm a really big sports girl and I do want to go into the NFL for NFL cheerleading. The seed was actually planted by my coach when she asked me [if] I ever wanted to go professional,” Dhanani, a Sid Richardson College sophomore, said. “I chose the Rice Dance team because I'd always been a cheerleader in high school, so I just love doing football. I love watching the sport and I'm very passionate, and I also like supporting our players.”

However, the team also hovers in the uncertain space between being a club team and gaining official status as Rice athletes, according to Dhanani. 

“Logistically, in a way, we are part of Rice, so we do get directions from them.We actually got heavily incorporated into basketball games [this year], and that's when we started feeling like, ‘Oh, we're real athletes,’ because in the years past, we've been treated just like a club,” Dhanani said. “We are at every game, we're at every single event, but I don't know if they might switch us to being full athletes. I would say we're like half-athletes right now.”

 On the positive side, this means no intensive early-morning training sessions, but it also means that the dance team gets no off-seasons – they are always either performing or training for auditions. 

Currently, the team is preparing for the spring showcase. Though the team is not technically competitive, they are working towards qualifying for the Universal Dance Association national competitions, which features  high school and collegiate cheerleadings and dance events. 

Though all the dance teams have different goals, whether it be official competitions, showcases, or personal achievement, the motivations of the individual dancers may boil down to the same thing. 

“I am so thankful that I did make it because I have lifelong friends. It gives me something to do, keeps me occupied, and I love being busy,” Dhanani said. “Any athletic team has their downs and ups, but I think this is a really good opportunity, at least for me, and I know a lot of the girls on the team, we do it for fun.” 

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