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team spotlight
CMU Raasta, based at Carnegie Mellon University, was established in November 2011, by four freshmen who individually dreamed of starting a raas team before attending CMU. They all met during orientation week and decided to make it happen. After countless meetings with other student organizations, these freshmen finally created a very unique and talented team.
This past season, the most prestigious Bollywood-Fusion Competition, Bollywood America, was held in Cleveland, Ohio. Every year, teams from across the nation battle it out onstage to win the title of National Champions. Northwestern University Anubhav proved that their combination of hard-work and talent was lethal and became this year’s victors. Anubhav was established in 2008, by a couple members of Northwestern's Raas team and a graduate student who was a former member of Stanford Dil Se. These dancers had attended Best of the Best, in Chicago, the year before, saw a few of the HFD teams competing, and were inspired to create a new team at Northwestern.
The Men Of Dance (MOD) Project is an independent team, based in Chicago, where all but a few of their members are from UIC. Several of the dancers were on various teams prior to joining The MOD Project. Some of these teams included Chicago Dhamaal (co-ed fusion), UIC Nazaara (co-ed bollywood), UIC Dangeraas, and Ministry of Bhangra. During the 2013-2014 season, some of the dancers, from these various teams, decided to get together and put on an all guys desi fusion performance at the annual India Night Show at UIC. What originally began as a fun showcase idea, in which they jokingly called their act "The Ministry Of Dhazaara," or MOD with a different meaning, had amazing feedback. The audience went wild and said it was very entertaining to watch. Combined, they all loved breaking out of their creative comfort zones and decided to ban together to officially compete in the circuit. They just finished their second competitive year, with a bang, by placing second at Bollywood America (or Nationals) and also receiving an award for the Best All Male Team of the Year.
Virginia School Of Bhangra, also known as VSB, is a relatively new group to the dance community. Unlike most teams that compete in the bhangra circuit, they are not associated with any college or university. Virginia School of Bhangra started off as a summer camp, hosted by GMU Bhangra, called “Bhangra 101.” After seeing a large turnout during the two years it was held, parents wanted a year-round bhangra program for their children. They hoped to see an increase in results, as well as getting connected to the Punjabi culture. With this growing interest, five instructors from Bhangra 101 decided to create Virginia School of Bhangra.
Rutgers University’s incredible fusion dance team, Ehsaas, was co-founded by Suchi Gulati and Chandni Patel towards the end of Spring 2009. They started performing on campus the following fall and finally started competing on the collegiate level in 2011. The reasons why they are so successful are because of their dedication and their ability to problem solve given any issue.
