The Triangle

Issue date: 1/30/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: Karl Kuchs

The cheers that greeted Drexel's fusion dance team, Jhalak, as they took the stage at the PhillyFest competition Saturday night, were deafening. Defending their title as the number one fusion dance team in the nation, eight of Jhalak's nine female dancers brought everything they had to the stage. More than anything, they wanted to win the PhillyFest competition for the second year in a row and take home a bid to the 2009 Best of the Best competition in San Francisco.

The PhillyFest competition, which took place Jan. 24 at the Merriam Theater, was accurately described by one member of the audience, Purvika Patel, as "absolutely amazing." Twelve teams from universities across the nation gathered to compete in three separate categories for the PhillyFest cup, including UCLA's Nashaa, UC Berkeley's Ishaara, Penn State's JaDoom, Rutgers's Sapa and Northwestern university's A-Nu-Bhav. Each team brought their own style to the floor, and judges judged them on their formation, technique, and ability to stay together. Every movement had to be synchronized perfectly, every arm had to be bent at the same angle, every expression had to be perfectly coordinated and each formation had to be perfectly formed or the judges would deduct points.

Drexel's Jhalak competed in the non-coed dance fusion category against New York university's Pandemonium, University of Michigan's Taal, and the University of Pennsylvania's Dhamaka. In previous years, Jhalak has claimed the trophy both in this category and as the overall best dance team. But this year the judges gave NYU's Pandemonium the non-coed fusion trophy, and the PhillyFest cup went to UC Berkley's Ishaara.

In addition to the dance teams, PhillyFest also featured performances by the accapella group Penn Masala and the debut performance of the Aatima dance team. Between each act, the hosts, Rajiv and Melanie, entertained the audience with their impersonations of Sarah Palin and Barak Obama, as well as a few well-performed skits. But, the highlight of the evening came between several curtain calls when Jhalak's supporters began chanting a Drexel-Jhalak chant that drowned out every other sound.

Fusion dance is a South Asian dance style that combines different styles of Asian dance with hip-hop, ballet, and other types of dance. The members of Jhalak, which means a glimpse of each type of dance, work together to choreograph dances that incorporate as many different styles as possible. Fusion music, like the dance, is a mix of different genres and styles of music that are fused together to create an upbeat and fast dance.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools