South Asia Club sponsors Tufts 'Bhangra' dancers for worthy cause

Author: Lauren Smith

Middlebury College's South Asia Club (SAC) filled the McCullough Social Space with the lively sounds of Bhangra Friday night as a dance and music troupe from Tufts University, performed to an animated audience. The performance, co-sponsored by SAC, the Office of Institutional Diversity and the College's Dance program, was free, but donations to the Tsunami Relief Fund were accepted at the door. A Bhangra workshop took place on Saturday in the Center for the Arts (CFA), allowing interested students to learn the traditional dance.

Vani Sathisan '07, vice president of SAC, organized the concert along with Sumeet Srivastava '05 and Afifa Faisal '07, SAC president. According to Sathisan, the performers were brought to the College "to raise awareness of a different culture, to cherish the idea of being international and, above all, to celebrate diversity on campus." Sathisan added, "People have to learn more about other cultures and traditions if they want to lead creative and fulfilling lives and to function with efficacy in societies. This was an excellent opportunity for many people who are not from the South Asian region to learn about just one small aspect of the culture."

Bhangra is a form of folk music and dance that originated in Punjab, a region of northwestern India and eastern Pakistan. Traditionally, the songs were made-up verses called boliyaans which covered a variety of topics, from love to drinking. People traditionally performed Bhangra when celebrating the harvest, though it is now performed throughout the world at occasions such as weddings, receptions or parties. Performances of the dance include the singing of Punjabi boliyaan lyrics while playing the dhol drum, the most important instrument in the dance; the tumbi, a one-stringed instrument; and the sarangi, a violin-like instrument.

The 12 students who performed have earned a reputation as some of the top Bhangra dancers at a college or university in the United States. The group was founded five years ago and has since placed in the top five of two national Bhangra competitions. The performers were a mix of students directly from South Asia, students of South Asian descent and several Americans. The mix of nationalities within the group illustrated the "international" quality of the dance, something that was also illustrated by the fusion of modern club mixes and traditional Bhangra music throughout the performance.

Bhangra, which is believed to have originated in the 1400s, has recently hit the mainstream dance world. It has become a popular style of music and dance for native and non-native performers. Universities and other organizations have begun in the last several years to sponsor annual Bhangra dance competitions in many cities across the United States, Canada and England.

One notable aspect of the performance on Saturday was a collection at the door of donations that will go to the Tsunami Relief Fund. While the fundraising aspect was not originally planned, it was quickly added to the program after the tsunami occurred in South Asia.

"The tsunami affected the South Asian region very badly," Sathisan said. "It devastated some countries' economies and wrecked peoples' lives. We had initially planned on organizing this concert to highlight an important dance of South Asia, though after the tsunami the South Asia Club decided to do our bit in helping the victims of the disaster. Thus, it became a charity event."