Dance group celebrates Indian tradition

Nrityamala

Cultural Ka-boom

Thursday at 7:30… Nrityamala

Cultural Ka-boom

Thursday at 8:30 p.m.

WPU Assembly Room

Admission free for students

At the intersection of religious devotion and artistic expression, you’ll find competitive Indian classical dance. And at Pitt, you’ll find the winners of the Laasya intercollegiate Indian classical dance competition: Nrityamala.

“These dances originated in temples to tell these stories and praise certain gods and goddess,” said Shobhitha Ravi, captain of Pitt’s classical Indian dance team, Nrityamala. “Now it’s come out of the temples and is onto the stage.”

The troupe was founded in 2006 by Sadhana Rajamoorthi, and it performed regularly at Pitt events before making its off-campus debut last fall at Johns Hopkins University. In March, the team took first place in Laasya at the University of Maryland.

“We wanted to get Pitt’s name out there and let everyone know that: A) we exist as a team; and B) we’re legit,” said dancer and future captain of Nrityamala, Sushma Kola.

Teams across the country submitted audition videos to the competition, from which only eight competitors were chosen. Judges evaluate the dance performances on theme, adherence to tradition, synchronization, technique, choreography and overall impression.

“We’re big on traditionality, and we don’t like to move too much away from that. Some dancers will use pop music as a way to engage the audience, but I have no problem saying I’m not for that,” Ravi said.

At Laasya, Nrityamala chose to use music with vocals, which Ravi said helped set its performance apart, since most teams at the competition used instrumental music.

“The dancing goes with the words and the story you’re telling,” Ravi said. “For me, the Indian classical dance is definitely a connection to my religion, but it isn’t for everyone. You don’t have to believe in God to dance. It’s Hindi culture versus Hindu religion, I feel like those are two separate things that overlap.”

Kola had her own strategy for engaging audiences: She audio engineered a blend of several traditional songs.

“For me, it’s really bizarre to dance with tango music or hip-hop. The style is rooted in being devotional and a religious dance style, so it makes you cringe to see dance done to modern music. It’s a religious thing from the very start, but that by no means means it has to be boring,” Kola said.

This Thursday, the team will perform at Cultural Ka-boom, an event run by the multicultural sorority Zeta Sigma Chi. The performance will be the first non-Indian-organization-sponsored event at which the team has been asked to perform.

“We had heard that Nritymala had won a huge Indian classical dancing competition a few weekends ago and definitely wanted to showcase Pitt talent,” said Alisha Lineswala, Zeta Sigma Chi president.

“Having a classical Indian dance group perform is exciting because it exposes attendees to cultures they might otherwise never get a glimpse of,” said Lucy Rankin, vice president and cultural coordinator of the sorority and chair of Cultural Ka-boom.

Cultural Ka-boom isn’t the only upcoming event in the group’s calendar: Nrityamala was invited to perform for Indian ambassador Meera Shankar on April 28 during her stay in Pittsburgh for a World Affairs Council event.

“It’s during finals week, but we all wanted to do it, so we’re going to make it happen,” Ravi said. “[The invitation] is something we’re very proud of; just to be asked is a privilege.”

Further down the road, in February 2012, Laasya will come to Pitt. It will be the first Indian dance competition ever hosted at the University.

“We’re really excited to bring people to Pittsburgh to see our city, see our school, and see our dance team,” Kola said.

[Editor’s note: Staff writer Swarna Sunkara is a member of Nritymala, On April 12, a change was made to denote that Alisha Lineswala is the president of Zeta Sigma Chi and to correct an error in the event.]