IU students gathered Wednesday night in the Wildermuth Intramural Center to learn about Bollywood dancing, a style popular in Southern Asia.
Multi-Cultural Greek Council sororities Sigma Sigma Rho and Alpha Kappa Alpha put on the event in order to spread Southern Asian culture to students, Sigma Sigma Rho president Khyati Patel said.
Sisters of Sigma Sigma Rho are also members of IU Jhanak, a Bollywood dance team, Patel said. For this event, the sororities taught attendees an excerpt from a dance the team performed at the Indian Students Association Diwali last year.
Music at the event combined Southern Asian folk music known as bhangra, and hip-hop music, said Neehar Sachdeva, a Sigma Sigma Rho sister who helped plan the event.
Dance instructors from the sororities at the event went through each motion of the dance, which was performed to the M.I.A. song “Bad Girls.”
M.I.A. is of Sri Lankan Tamil heritage. However, Sachdeva said M.I.A.’s ethnicity and her sorority’s choice of the song are merely coincidental.
Each sorority has their own pillars of cultural awareness, Omega Phi Beta sister Anahy Mayorga said. These help broaden a sister’s knowledge of traditions, behaviors and customs across the globe. Mayorga said she attended the event in order to exercise these pillars.
In order to spread these practices, Mayorga said it is good to explore the different variations of dance from other cultures.
“Dancing is a great form to display the values of your culture,” Mayorga said.
Mayorga said dancing creates a great bonding experience among others.
“It just brings everyone as a community together,” Mayorga said.
Not only sorority sisters attended the event. IU freshman Kathryn Bower, who is not involved in greek life, said she attended in order to learn Bollywood dancing, as well as just expand her dancing skills and knowledge overall.
Since they are such a small council, Patel said all of the organizations in MCGC are a close-knit group.
“We like to look at each other like one big family,” Patel said.
AKA is a more popular sorority on campus than Sigma Sigma Rho, Sachdeva said. By reaching out to them for support, she said Sigma Sigma Rho will be able to share their Southern Asian customs, organization and council out to a larger population.
“Coming together, we are able to reach to a bigger audience for a fun, cultural event,” Sachdeva said.
AKA Vice President Taylor Tunstall said her sorority is also interested in receiving more recognition.
“We want to build a sisterhood with other organizations outside of our council,” Tunstall said.
Along with spreading Southern Asian culture, Sigma Sigma Rho also works to spread awareness of domestic violence, Patel said. The sorority often works with Middle Way House.
“We’re trying to help spread our culture and let people know who we are,” Patel said. “We’re fairly new, so we’re just trying to get our name out.”
