For 13 years, Boston University’s premier Indian Classical Dance Team, BU Dheem, has been hosting the “Dheem Show” — which is intended to “appreciate” and “preserve” Indian Classical Arts. This year was no different as students were thrilled to watch the live performance at the Tsai Performance Center Saturday night.
In addition to the BU Dheem members’ performances, there were also two a cappella solos and an instrumental piece. The American and Indian national anthems were performed by BU Suno — BU’s premier South Asian/Western Fusion A Cappella team.
The theme of this year’s showcase was Milaap — a celebration of reconciliation and meeting.
“After an entire year and a half of dancing online, this is a reconciliation of dancers with the stage, and of dances with each other, of our team coming together in person and being able to do one group dance on the same stage,” Ritika Dinesh, president and co-captain of BU Dheem, said. “It’s just a very joyful occasion and we thought Milaap was a very fitting term for that.”
This year’s show featured the Indian classical dance styles of Kathak, Bharatanatyam and Odissi. Many of the dancers have been learning these styles from a very young age, and each of their solos are either choreographed by the dancers or their gurus as a way of honoring them, Dinesh, who is also a junior in Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, said.
“We basically convey storylines of Hindu mythology through our dance, and through the gods and goddesses our dance focuses on learning some kind of moral,” Dinesh said. “I think that it was really beautiful to see that even people who don’t really understand, like all our gestures and all our movements, were able to understand the moral of the story.”
Kathak is “very slow” and “graceful,” while Bharatanatyam takes a more rigid form, she said.
“The way I see it, Odissi is a very nice combination of the two,” Dinesh said.
BU Dheem aims to use dance to spread social awareness, with past pieces inspired by the women’s feminist movement and the opioid crisis in Massachusetts. This year’s show is not based on a particular social issue, but BU Dheem has chosen to donate part of the proceeds to the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.
Soumya Sathe, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences and a member of BU Suno, came to support one of her friends on BU Dheem and performed the Indian National Anthem at the start of the show. Sathe said that everybody was “so talented” and that it was “nice that they get to showcase their talents” after training for so long.
“I thought [the performance] was beautiful and it really felt like it captured a small part of home somewhere,” Sathe said. “It just feels very comforting and familiar in the best way.”
Audience member Emma Cowan, a senior in the College of Communication, also came to support her friend who played the sitar in the instrumental piece.
“I think it’s incredible,” Cowan said. “I think it’s really, really cool to have something like this that is accessible to students and anyone in the community.”
Since their early childhood, apart from their education and family, the BU Dheem members’ lives have been centered around dance, Dinesh said.
“When I see my team, everyone’s eyes sparkle when they dance because that’s just how much we love the art form,” Dinesh said. “To be able to come and share that with people who understand that love is amazing.”
Correction: A previous version of this article stated BU Suno performed the instrumental piece at the “Dheem Show.” BU Suno performed the national anthems, not the instrumental piece. This has since been taken out and clarified.
