Living up to its Hindi definition, Mazaa brings fun and enjoyment to performers and viewers alike.
Marquette Mazaa is a competitive Bollywood fusion dance team on campus that travels all across the country to take part in intensive competitions. Dancers come from a variety of dance backgrounds.
The team recently finished filming a dance audition tape this week for a contest in Iowa. They have placed first and second in a number of contests, taking home trophies and reward money that goes toward team upkeep, costumes and travel expenses to competition destinations such as Minneapolis and Cleveland.
Mazaa will make their next appearance at the Hype Showcase Nov. 12.
Pruthvi Patel, a junior in the College of Health Sciences, and Richa Shah, a sophomore in the College of Health Sciences, are the costume chairpersons for the team.
“We have a bunch of costume changes throughout our routines, so onstage we will have 15 seconds or so to go backstage and whip out a whole new costume,” Patel said.
Pruthvi and Shah design all the costumes and decide who is in what routine for each costume change. Costumes are custom-tailored, handmade and purchased.
“We will either find stuff online … and add tulle or sheer paint or we will buy completely new fabric and send it to a tailor,” Patel said.
The team rehearses on Wednesdays and Sundays. Sometimes they rehearse until 2 a.m.
Sahar Jiwani, a sophomore in the College of Health Sciences, is one of three captains of the dance team. She and her co-captains conduct practices and choreograph the routines for a year’s worth of performances.
This is their third year as a Marquette organization. Mazaa was founded by Marquette students such as Jake Philip, a current first-year student of the School of Dentistry and member of Marquette’s hip-hop Hype Dance Company. Jiwani said Phillip wanted to push dancing to a more competitive level.
“One of the things I love is traveling to competitions and going together as a team,” Jiwani said. “We are very family oriented, we compete together and, win or lose, we are all in it together.”
Tarini Mitra, a junior in the College of Health Sciences and a dancer on the team, said she met some of her best friends through Mazaa.
“The Bollywood dance culture is very unique and we’re a very fun group,” Mitra said.
