Dance team plans to expand
Other universities with Asian-based dance teams include Washington University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Published Sept. 12, 2006
For freshman Joshua MacWan, it began with a simple search through Facebook groups. Now MacWan is a member of one of MU's newest club sports — the Mizzou Mirchi Dance Team.
The Mizzou Mirchi Dance Team, which is in its first semester as an officially recognized student organization, is MU's first South Asian-based dance team.
Mirchi means "chili pepper" in Hindi, said president Sarah Damian.
"A chili pepper is infamous for being very hot," Damian said. "Thus, we want to represent the innovative energy of today's Bollywood scene."
The team incorporates Bollywood themes, taken from the largely popular film industry in India, with traditional Indian dances like garba and bhangra.
The team sets itself apart by including more modern Latin and hip-hop moves.
All team members can help choreograph the team's dances, which is a major part of the experience, Damian said.
"Anyone on the dance team who has something to contribute can help choreograph," she said. "Since we are a fusion team that combines many different genres of dance, it is necessary to bring ideas from individuals that have various experience together."
The team hasn't begun full practices yet; it is still in the early stages.
"Once we get into the swing of things, practices will take place more and more often," Damian said. "Right now we are meeting for a couple hours in the evening about three times a week."
In February, Damian attended two competitions where she met South Asian-based teams from other colleges.
Damian said at least 12 other teams were present at a competition in Chicago. The other competition was the Nachte Rahon, a competition held at the University of Iowa, where about eight teams were present.
The Mizzou Mirchi team could participate in competitions later in the year.
"We will definitely be performing at several events on campus," Damian said. "This year we are hoping to create something new to MU and bring interest that exists at other schools. Schools like (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and (Washington University) in St. Louis, who have had many South Asian-based dance teams for several years, had to start somewhere."
Washington University has a lot of specialized teams in different genres of South Asian-based dance with about 20 people for each team, Damian said.
The University of Illinois has several teams as well. Every year they hold tryouts with large turnouts for teams that vary in specialty.
Most of their teams practice every day during the week, Damian said.
The MU team only has six members now, but Damian said he sees that number growing in the future.
"I'm really hoping that more people join Mizzou Mirchi throughout the semester because we really want a fresh start with a very motivated team," Lahiri said.
The Mirchi Dance Team will have a booth at the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center Fall Fest from 4-7 p.m. Fall Fest is scheduled for Wednesday at Carnahan Quadrangle.
"We are at that beginning stage, and hopefully, it will grow in the years to come, bringing more diversity and cultural opportunities to this campus," Damian said.