A lack of speakers to play music didn’t stop HooSher Bhangra from teaching a room of about 25 prospective dancers a few moves Tuesday at the Ora L. Wildermuth Intramural Center. For two hours, new dancers learned the basics of a Punjabi dance style. Many attendees were freshmen who had no prior experience and just wanted to try something new.
“I’m coming with an open mind,” freshman Morgan Hoffman said just before the workshop began.
Bhangra is a style of dance from the Punjabi region of India. It is performed at weddings, parties and festivals. It is also performed for competitions both as a solo dance and in teams. HooSher Bhangra focuses on team dances, performing at IU and around the state, both competitively and to raise funds for the club.
“It's a dance of joy,” said senior Prince Singh, a co-founder and the current president of the club. “It's been part of the culture for a long, long time.”
Singh started the club two years ago as a sophomore alongside then-junior Neha Sehgal. Under their leadership, Singh said that the club grew from eight members the first year to 16 last year. This year, Singh has stepped down as a captain to focus on continuing the club's growth.
“If you go to any Indian party, you'll see people dancing," Singh said. "We love to dance. So, that's what we wanted to bring here. People have been fascinated by Bhangra because it's so energetic, it's so out there, it's uniform, it's something different that people haven't seen. So, our goal is to promote that at IU and bring it here.”
As the workshop began Tuesday, dancers stretched before sitting in a circle to learn more about the club and the symbolism and culture behind Bhangra from one of its captains, junior Omkar Tamhankar. It wasn’t long after that the attendees were on their feet learning their first moves.
Many who showed up to the workshop had never done Bhangra before, but they were eager to learn its high-energy moves. Community members Marielle Abell and her friend Abby Laadin were both dancers but neither had tried Bhangra.
“We’ve seen videos, and it looks awesome,” Abell said before the workshop started.
The workshop shifted between explaining and demonstrating each move in front of the entire group and breaking off into smaller sections with experienced dancers. And while the moves the instructors were teaching may have been basic stepping stones in Bhangra, members said that they can be difficult to master.
Tamhankar said it took him a semester to be comfortable with the first move.
Though some of the attendees had little experience with Bhangra, the energy in the room was intense. Dancers performed many exaggerated hops and side-steps to the beat while executing complex hand movements.
“It’s so much fun, but it’s hard to coordinate all of your body,” Hoffman said.
And while much of Bhangra is fun, Singh is looking to put a dedicated team together to compete. There was one more workshop Wednesday, but tryout videos are due Sunday.
“Bhangra as a competition is different than what you see as free dance," Singh said. "This is a lot more uniformed. This is where we teach people they have to dance alike because on stage, they're not seeing one person; they're seeing one team. So, it's that constant practice. That's how you get there.”
