Donning colorful chanya chori, dhoti and kurti garments, Indian students from colleges across the country danced for about 800 spectators Saturday night in the Garbafest 2006 competition, hosted in part by the Boston University India Club at the John Hancock Auditorium in downtown Boston.
In conjunction with the Boston Indian Student Association, BUIC held the dance competition to celebrate its 25th anniversary, featuring dancers from 10 different schools around the country and two BU exhibition teams.
Each team came on stage after a short video profiling the team. Many teams also stepped onstage to chants, such as “Whose house is this? BU!” and “NY-who? NYU!”
Angana Shah, the mother of a Cornell University dancer, said her son had just started dancing, and prior to college, he “wouldn’t even wear Indian cloths.” Her son, Aemish Shah, a Cornell senior, is also a cousin of BU performer Vishad Sheth, a College of Arts and Sciences sophomore.
“It’s funny, because they are competing against each other,” Angana Shah said.
Sheth’s dance partner, School of Management senior Shama Amin, said she started dancing her sophomore year of college.
“[I’m] so excited,” she said. “We placed first in Maryland two weeks ago, but there is tougher competition here. We’ll represent BU and do all that we can.”
The teams included students wearing traditional Indian clothing called chanya chori for women and dhoti and kurti for men. When they performed as a group, they displayed a mix of colors and matched the team’s dandiya, twirling sticks each team used in their dance.
Some teams also used stage props according to their themed dances. New York University’s dance added a touch of Indiana Jones flair to their performance with what they called the “Temple of Dhoom.” Northeastern University featured a live singer for the first portion of the dance. Pennsylvania State University used a black light to illuminate their yellow and white costumes.
Participating groups also hailed from Emory University, Rutgers University and the University of Maryland. Penn State took first place. BU exhibition acts Vibes and Jalwa also performed.
CAS sophomore Samir Bhalla, SMG junior Jayesh Motwani and Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences junior Deep Patadia said they grew up in around Indian dance, but only beginning dancing two to three years ago.
Their group, BU’s first ever co-ed fusion team known as Jalwa, was one of the exhibition teams performing.
Jalwa is a Hindi term meaning “passion,” a feeling the dancers try to evoke in their performances. Their dance, which mixes the eastern and western styles, was the night’s closing act.
“We push the boundaries of life,” Jalwa member Venkat Subramaniam, a School of Education sophomore, said.
BUIC Public Relations Coordinator Varun Mehta said he thought the event “was a huge success.”
“[Garbafest] is what BUIC is really about,” the College of Engineering junior said. “We got an overwhelming response from the teams. Over 15 applied, but we had to narrow it down to 10.”
The night was made possible, Mehta said, by the many sponsors of the competition. Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore sponsored a “mixer” for the various colleges’ students to get to know one another the night before the event.
“We hope to reproduce this for the future,” Mehta said.