The adrenaline is pumping and the dance team about to break out into a solo and perform graceful yet powerful, fast, and yet precise moves that may blow the audience away. Yep, that’s right, I’m talking about USF Naach, the Bollywood fusion dance team here at USF. At the time being, this dance team is fairly new as it just resurfaced this year.
I’ve been dancing ever since I was kid from Bollywood to Indian classical, called Bharatnatyam. I’ve recently joined USF Naach, and I think this is the beginning of many great experiences to come.
I didn’t know what to expect from dancing this semester. I haven’t danced in a specific program since maybe the start high school or even after performing for my high school’s international/multicultural festival night.
At first, I never thought I would be dancing again after a long time. I was skeptical about it, but then I thought, “What if this dance team really does have potential? I do like a challenge and would be excited to see what people would bring to the dance floor.”
In fact, I substituted with running for a while. But then I thought, hey, why not take a chance and immerse myself again in dance? Why not give it a try and get back in touch with your Indian heritage as well as the contemporary culture?
Being a dancer takes a lot of commitment as well as discipline. Hours of practicing every week, meeting up accordingly to everyone’s schedules and eating late. Very late. Late night practices may have been a new kind of workout. Yes, it is indeed stressful as you look forward to longer nights and shorter days of studying, homework, dance, and well, more dance. You have to fit in everything and synchronize it with your internal clock, which could potentially alter your metabolism in a weird way (ok that can be changed once you adjust your schedule). It’s also frustrating because there will be times when not all of your teammates show up for practice, or when you have to go over segments of the music that you will dance to, repeatedly (as in triple the run-throughs and triple the conditioning).
On the bright side, I learned more about hip-hop and lyrical than I thought I would. The choreography was incredible. It’s amazing how people can think of new ways to create dance moves. Oh, and fun fact, USF Naach is probably one of the very few dance teams with a lot of diversity, meaning we’ve got more than just brown people breaking it down. But really though, I have met such incredible people and we’ve pretty much become a family.
It’s been months of hard work and practice as we, USF Naach, prepare for an upcoming competition called Diwali Dhamaka. We will be competing against other dance teams of other Florida colleges.
I can definitely say it’s a nice experience because there’s so much coordination, team work, planning, and creativity. I realized that I kept on dancing because it’s a form of art that I’ve learned and I don’t want to lose my touch in that art form.
