Each year, the Indian Student Association hosts their annual cultural show based on a popular Indian movie. This year, the show is based on the movie “Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani,” which translates to “Rocky and Rani’s Love Story.”
The show took place at Weasler Auditorium on March 22 and 23. The show began with the singing of the National Anthem, and then members of ISA sang the Indian National Anthem. Following that, the show consisted of seven dances, with a skit in-between each dance.
“Basically, we were re-making the movie. Each scene is five minutes max, but we end each scene with the characters introducing the performance that is about to take place, as well as the choreographers,” Nina Abraham, co-president of ISA and junior in the College of Health Sciences, said.
Vice President of ISA, and junior in the College of Health Sciences, Ashna Patel, shared that each dance was based on a different part of India. There were dances that showed culture from South India and North India, as well as different cities within those regions.
“We told our choreographers no more than five minutes for each dance, but within that dance they can choose as many songs as they want,” Abraham said. “For the retro dance style, we called it ‘Dancing Through the Decades,’ where the choreographer picks songs from each decade.”
Prior to the show, Abraham said a lot of organizing went into finding multiple choreographers within their association and organizing the guest act they would be having. This year, the guest act was the African Student Association.
“We had to collaborate a lot with them,” Abraham said. “We also had to organize how we would be planning the food we would be selling, as well as the lighting and sound around two weeks prior to the show.”
During the intermission, guests were able to purchase water or traditional Middle Eastern food called Samosas. Samosas are fried pastries with fillings that include ingredients like spiced potatoes, onions, peas, meat or fish and are then formed into a triangular, cone or crescent depending on the region.
Leading up to the show, Patel said she practiced for two hours a week for three dances, but added that the practice time depends on how many dances members are in.
“People have the choice on what they want to do. Each person is allowed to pick how much they want to participate in the show, so if they don’t want that much stress, they could even just do one dance,” Patel said.
Abraham said for costumes they wanted to pick out those that reflected as close as possible to the specific culture that each dance was for. For instance, Abraham said the South India dance had to make sure it accurately represented the saree properly.
“It does get complicated in the sense of finances,” Abraham said. “To get really nice costumes, it can get pricey since each performer is paying out of pocket for the show. We look into the colors of the costumes because of the lighting and how comfortable each performer is wearing the costume.”
Abraham added that they also had to keep in mind having each dance be different colors, because it could get complicated or confusing when the colors overlap on stage.
“We made sure each choreographer had a strict deadline of picking out costumes three weeks in advance. We did this because we didn’t want there to be any problems with shipping and the costumes coming in late,” Abraham said.
The money raised from both ticket and food sales goes into various events ISA has throughout the year.
“We haven’t had that many fundraisers this year, but the money we raise are for events for ourselves as an association, like our fall formal,” Patel said. “We want to have our own participants be able to attend events and have fun, so the money we raise helps a lot to make sure we can have future shows and events.”
This story was written by Sophie Goldstein. She can be reached at [email protected].
