Celene Vargas
Staff Writer
The 2015 Sanskriti 5C South Asian Cultural Show featured dancing, music and a skit with a unifying theme of love Saturday in Bridges Auditorium at Pomona College.
The show embraced the South Asian culture by featuring performances that demonstrated different aspects of the Indian culture, like classical dancing and songs that praised their Hindu beliefs. However, the show added a modern twist by mixing traditional dance styles with modern ones.
“(It is a) wonderful opportunity for minorities on campus, like the South Asian students in particular, to be visible, to perform their culture, to take ownership of their identity and to put it out there for the entire Claremont community to engage with,” said Aiman Chaudhary, a sophomore politics major at Pomona College.
Most of the performances involved Bollywood routines, hip hop and a rhythmic dance praising the deity Vishnu, who was explained to be the remover of all suffering.
One dance routine that stood out was a classical piece about two Indian warrior princesses, choreographed to the song “Sand” by Nathan Lanier.
Another comedic dance was about how a grandfather met his wife.
At first he did not succeed swooning her, but eventually won her love to the point where she was the one that proposed to him.
“(My two favorites were) the duel and the other one with the dance (about) the older couple,” said Nikki Sanon, sophomore economics major at Scripps College. “That was really cute.”
The show also featured singers.
A song performed by two female students and one male student praised Lord Rama, a Hindu deity, using music from Karandi, a village in Punjab, India. The students sat on the stage floor for their performance.
The two female students sang and tapped their hands on their thighs in tempo with the drum music played by the male student.
A duet was also performed on how cultural bonds bring people from different places together.
“It was beautiful; the clothing, the jewelry, the makeup (and) the dancing,” said Lina Mihret, freshman molecular biology major at Scripps College.
Another duet used the song “Viva la Vida” by Coldplay. The song was the only one sung in English, but some parts were sung using the student singers’ native language.
Other songs were about love and friendship. One student dedicated her song to South Asian women empowerment.
Sanskriti is an annual event held by Ekta, a student organization for students who are of South Asian descent or are interested in South Asian culture.
“I came to see Sanskriti last year, and it was such an amazing experience, partly because it’s so wonderful to see people from all backgrounds coming together to celebrate this type of dance and music,” said Rebecca Boorstin, sophomore psychology major at Pitzer College.
At the end, all the performers went on stage to perform a final Bollywood dance together.
“One of my friends was in the performance, and it was amazing to see her and to see what she put so much effort into,” Boorstin said.
Celene Vargas can be reached at celene.vargas@laverne.edu.
