Sadly, I am not a performing member of Iowa Andhi this year. Luckily, the current captains have granted me the manager position, so that when I freakishly show up at every performance and random practices — I have a title!
The pictures above are from the VSA Lunar New Year Dress Rehearsal that we had prior to the show.
Directly after the Vietnames Student Alliance’s Lunar New Year event the entire team came over to my house. SLUMBER PARTY!
To say the least, there was a lot of cupcakes, snacks, and candy! We played the board game life together and stayed up a lot later than we probably should have.
Here is the link to our very first performance!!! We did awesome, I am so proud of everyone. Our team is full of individuals, there are no two similar people on the team. We all come from different backgrounds, plenty of us speak other languages, and most of us grew up dancing different styles.
I learn so much from these girls everyday and they are always there when you need help.
The nerves are racing inside of each and every one of us. The music is blasting in the background, but to us, seems to be drowned into a whisper by our beating hearts. It is time.
The show is about to begin and all of the models for the Hip Hop category are dressed and in line to start the show. The other groups are cheering us on, and shouting things like “break a leg” and “you’ll do great” in attempt to decrease the pressure and calm our nerves. It is 8 o’clock and we are taking the runway!
I am currently on an amazing South Indian Fusion Bollywood Dance team called Iowa Andhi!
Andhi translates from Hindi to English as Storm.
After one of our practices, our coach encouraged us to attend the Garba, hosted by University of Iowa’s Indian Student Association.
I also received an invitation in my email. Sooo… me and a couple of friends decided to attend!
We had an Amazing Amazing Time!
After we all broke a sweat from dancing....
There was plenty of great Indian Music! 🙂
We finally got it!
I tried some Indian Food! 😀
Yum Yum ...Mango Lassi and SamosaThe ladies who went with me!
Did I mention it was a lot of fun?
-Im being theatrical...don't ask 🙂Just having a good time
It took place in Currier Residential Hall in the MPR room. There was a teaching session(if you wanted to learn how to do the dance ahead of time) an hour and half before Garba actually started. Garba started at 10 and went until 1 in the morning!
We even saw some more of our friends there.
What is Garba? Garba is a form of traditional Indian folk dance from India’s western state of Gujarat, conducted with dandiya sticks. This high-energy dance is traditionally celebrated at the end of the Navratri festival. Garba is a great opportunity to actively engage in Indian culture and meet other people with similar interests.
Check out this video clip from the movie Pride and Prejudice. This clip is an example of Garba, and dancing with Dandiyas sticks, which is something we also learned how to do!
I went home for the weekend. Wow, have I missed my family. It seems like my niece and nephew are growing up sooo fast! On the other hand, I have returned back to Iowa City just in time to go to work. At work I plan on getting a lot of my homework done. Right after work I am heading off to Iowa Andhi Practice! (Iowa Andhi- University of Iowa’s Bollywood dance team!)
