Step into the vibrant world of collegiate Bollywood dance competitions, embarking on a thrilling journey of rhythm and culture. From intense rehearsals to intricate choreography, every practice is a step to the competition season. Dedication and teamwork pay off as the competition season unfolds, teams travel across states and compete across the East and West coasts. Interactions with fellow dancers from other colleges foster unity and mutual admiration for dance, and backstage buzzes with excitement as teams prepare to showcase their fusion of tradition and innovation, leaving audiences and judges to determine who will make it to the national championship: Legends. Desi Dance Network is a circuit that combines colleges across the nation, so join me as I take you through a journey of what it’s like to be a dancer at these competitions.
Through a rigorous selection process, almost 100 teams compete for a spot in the competition season, consisting of around 20 competitions. However, only the top 8 teams get chosen per competition based on audition videos submitted. Nazaare, NCSU’s premiere Bollywood competition team, gets accepted into at least four every year. This year, we have been to two competitions in Georgia, one in Pennsylvania, and one in our very own Chapel Hill.
To start a competition, teams travel to different places where all the hospitality is provided for (hotels, food, transportation, etc.) by the competition board. To start the competition, Friday is designated for a “mixer”, where teams mix with other teams through different games and activities set up by the competition. This is a time for dancers to mingle and meet other dancers from other schools and teams before the competition starts. More importantly, the games played determine the show’s order. After the mixer is post-mixer practice, where all the last-minute practice and preparations take place (this can go till 3 am sometimes). From here comes room reveal, where teams go back to their hotel rooms that have been decorated by the liaisons who are managing your team. Here, you get merch, snacks, and beverages (for the afterparty;). Following this, at the early hours of what could be 4 am, teams go to sleep.
Saturday morning comes fast, as teams have to hustle to the venue for their “tech time”. This consists of 20 minutes for each team on stage to do formation run-throughs with props, and a chance to get a recorded full out run-through, to get a feel for the stage. The order of tech time is based on the show order, so if you are first, you may have to reach the venue as early as 8 am. Following this comes a viewing room, where teams are given 20-40 minutes (depending on the competition), to watch the full-out run-throughs on stage, and see how the set looks from an audience perspective. From here, comes post-tech time practice, where teams are given their final 20 minutes to fix anything that may have looked off on stage.
Proceeding this busy morning comes the fun part: getting ready and getting team pictures taken. However, when it comes to 10 girls in one hotel room and one mirror, this can get hectic at times (there are almost 30 people on our team and only 3 hotel rooms). Once hair, makeup, and costumes are done, the team heads over to the venue to take team photos and of course, perform the set!
After all performances are over, awards take place. This consists of the top 3 placing teams, as well as superlatives like best mix, best lead, etc. Proceeding the show comes everyone’s favorite part of the competition: the afterparty. Each competition holds an afterparty for its dancers, and it is open to anyone (many people from the competition school come). After pregaming with the team, everyone goes to the afterparty and this completes the end of the competition.
While the competition season is coming to an end, I have had so much fun this year creating memories, meeting new people, and of course, dancing! If you want to check out the set we worked on this year, here is the link!