(An edited version of this article was published in India Abroad, July 2009)

Badmash, Ishaara, Dil Se, KYA, Zamana, Dhamaka, Tamasha. No, these are not names of new Bollywood movies. These are the names of  Hindi Film Dance (HFD) or Bollywood dance groups from various US universities, and this list does not include the names of  ras gharba or bhangra teams that exist in many of these universities.  

In this article we are focused narrowly on HFD or fusion dance groups in US universities. Over the past few years there has been a sudden explosion of these HFD teams, and almost every Ivy League, well-known state or private school has a Bollywood dance team. And new teams are born every year. as old ones are revamped and get a total makeover with a new name like the one from University of California Irvine did last year.

The newest team to hit the HFD circuit is Tamasha that was born last year at Tufts University, and the oldest team is Penn University’s Dhamaka. Interestingly, Penn’s Dhamaka is one of the few all-male dance teams, and Tufts Tamasha is an all-girls dance team. These two teams are the exception since most of the dance teams tend to have both male and female dancers. It is not uncommon for many of these teams to have non-desi members.Before we go any further let us get the labeling and definitions straightened out.

Some colleges use the term HFD, while others use the term fusion, and rarely do any of the teams’ use the term Bollywood to describe their dance group. On drilling down further I uncovered that West Coast schools prefer to use the term HFD, while East Coast teams largely prefer to use the term fusion. What is the difference you ask? There is plenty depending on which team you talk to and where they are located geographically.  The labeling determines what category you are slotted in a dance competition. The labeling also determines the content of your show. Broadly HFD teams tend to have a 7-8 minute routine with a plot and a theme, and are often described as a mini Bollywood or Broadway show. Even though the final routine is just 8 minutes long, the amount of effort, energy, thought and analysis that is put into the production is enormous and I suspect beats the efforts put in by the original Bollywood choreographers themselves.

“Ten years ago the term Bollywood was not used,” points out Nickesh Vis of Berkeley’s Ishaara, who prefers to use the term HFD. Ishaara was ranked as the top HFD team for 2009, and is recognized by other dance groups as a team to reckon with. HFD’s tend to “have a storyline and there is a plot. It is Bollywood compressed in 8 minutes,” points out Vinitha Rangarajan of KYA, UC San Diego’s HFD team. “You build a storyline and select songs that embody those feelings. The tempo of the songs should fit the theme and get the audience excited,” adds Nickesh.

Both Vinitha and Nickesh grew up in the bay area and danced together in various events as teenagers, which is where both of them got their taste and love for Bollywood movies. While Nickesh is a big fan of Hrithik Roshan, Vinitha is a fan of Madhuri Dixit.

Besides the story line and the songs what distinguishes a HFD team is the elaborate use of props, backgrounds and costumes. HFD teams typically have 4-5 costume changes for their 8 minute routine, and they barely get 15 seconds to change says Vinitha. “California teams have pretty high levels of showmanship where costumes, props and choreography are big,” she adds.  “We basically look like shining disco balls. We need to make sure our team and clothes stand out when you have 1200 people in the audience” adds Akash Shah of Zamana from UC Irvine.  “Every year new team members will look at the costumes and say we are not wearing this. And when they see they have to wear make-up their response tends to be ‘You are kidding me, right?’” Akash points out with a laugh. But eventually the new team members come around to donning those shiny, glittery costumes and wearing make-up when they realize what is in stock for the team, and how committed each one of them is to putting their best foot forward.  

Other HFD teams on the west coast include Stanford’s Dil Se, UC Davis’s Toofan and Zindagi (Yes, UC Davis has 2 teams), UCLA’s Naasha, UC Santa Barbara’s Aashiqi among others.”Stylistically there is a difference between East and West coast dance teams. And yes, there are two different dance styles” agrees Ashwin Pushpala, President of Penn Dhamaka, the all-male dance group. Ashwin pegs Dhamaka as a fusion team. “HFD blew up in the west coast,” adds Ashwin.  Since Dhamaka slots itself as a fusion team they use a mix of hip-hop, salsa, bhartanatyam, bhangra, and ras gharba in their routine. “Our focus is on different dance forms,” says Ashwin. One of their lead dancers is Dean Johnson, “who is an amazing salsa dancer and we learnt salsa from him and incorporated it in our dance,” he adds. Just like Penn Dhamaka, Tuft’s Tamasha slots itself as a fusion group. “We mix bhangra, bhartanatyam, bollywood and hip hop to create our own fusion,” says Tina Jumani of Tufts University.

Penn’s Dhamaka, Tufts’ Tamasha and Brown’s Brown Badmash are all East Coast based University dance teams, who seem to prefer the term fusion to HFD.

Regardless of what label these dance teams use to describe themselves they all pretty much follow a similar routine to forming their teams and figuring out their dance routines. When the new school year begins it means audition time. Dance teams across the country hold audition and choose the new members for their dance team. Once their team is formed they get busy working on their dance routines by selecting songs, learning new steps, building props and making costumes. On an average most members spend anywhere between 10-15 hours each week during a semester. Predictably the number of hours increases on the eve of a competition.

“I watch 1-2 movies in a month and watch YouTube clips for dance sequences,” says Chad Alexander Sitgraves of Stanford’s Dil Se. YouTube seems to be the favorite teaching tool for many of the dancers.”Sean is a very good dancer and we taught him some moves. But, he also spent time watching lot of YouTube videos,” says Rahul of Brown Badmash. “YouTube is a fantastic source that tells us what kinds of moves will work for us,” he adds.While there are many dance competitions held every year there are four that stand out.

The aim of many dance groups is to be invited to participate in the annual Best of Best Competition for South Asian Dance. This is strictly by invitation only competition. The schools with top rankings are invited to participate in the Best of Best competition. Then there are the 3 must-attend competitions: The Philly Fest by Penn State, Bollywood Berkeley by Cal Berkeley and Jhoomthi Shaam by UCLA. “Each team sends an audition tape, and the organizers place you in a category. Not every team makes it to the competition. More teams get rejected than they get selected,” describes Nickesh of Berkeley’s Ishaara.

Dance teams spend anywhere from $15-20k each year to organize and participate in various competitions. How do they raise money? Some like Penn State get funded from their school, while others like UC Irvine raise money through corporate sponsors or organizing charitable shows.

An upshot of organizing and raising finances for their dance team’s means students get to apply what they learn in school. For instance, many point out they have honed their skills at managing finances for their organization.

“I learnt how to manage a team and finances,” says Akash of UC Irvine, who graduated this year. Because of the intense involvement in their dance groups it is unsurprising when you hear that some of the members are seriously thinking of pursuing a career in the entertainment industry like Akash is. And some teams like Berkeley’s Ishaara are working towards appearing on national dance competition on TV. Berkeley’s HFD is all set to appear on “America’s Got Talent.”  (Update: Ishaara made it to the semi-finals in America’s Got Talent.) 

Others members like Rahul Banerjee and Ashwin Pushpala are focused on their professional career. Rahul will be joining Brown Medical School, while Ashwin is interning at a financial institute this summer before heading back to school to finish his studies. But, both of them plan to be involved with their dance groups until they graduate from school. Rahul’s goal is to see if Brown Badmash can qualify for a couple of the dance competition later this year.Interestingly, many team members feel a strong sense of belonging and pointed out that most of their friends are from the dance team. “It gives me a sense of belonging and 90 percent of my friends are from Badmash. Some people have called us a fraternity minus the alcohol and partying,” says Rahul.

“Lot of my friends think I am a quasi desi,” says Chad of Stanford’s Dil Se. “They call me Chad Singh, Chadwinder,” he adds with a laugh. “The team became my closest circle of friends. Dance sort of fuses my extracurricular and social activity,” explains Vinitha Rangarajan. In the meantime, school has just reopened, and that means a fresh round of auditions to recruits freshers and new dancers to various teams. This year I suspect will turn out to be an interesting and challenging one given that Bollywood has gone mainstream on US TV, and this means more opportunities for the various school teams.

Jai Ho!