The first thing that came to my mind after the music stopped playing was “I cannot believe that just happened.” I had NEVER felt the way I did after my performance at Dandiya Dhamaka @ Michigan with my UPitt Raas Team after any of the countless dance performances I’d been a part of since I was five years old. Let me clarify, it was a horrible feeling.

I always knew that when I came to college I WOULD join a competitive Indian dance team. I had to. Dance has been a part of my life since as long as I could remember. It’s my escape from life, my passion. But this isn’t the post where I talk about how much dance means to me, that’s for another time. Anyways, I couldn’t imagine life without both the joy and stress of constant practices, performances, and competitions, so when I came to the University of Pittsburgh the only question was which dance team I should try out for. I’ve tried almost every style of Indian dance before, Classical, Fusion, Bhangra. But not Raas (Not counting years of Garba during Navaratri season of course). So I can’t really explain why I was so set on joining the Raas team at Pitt. Maybe because I had never actually performed that style of dance before. Maybe because I liked the people at try outs. Maybe because I thought I had the highest chance of making the competitive team. Anywho, I ended up joining PantheRaas, the University’s Raas team.

From day one I felt disappointment. Essentially no cuts were made. I’m a very competitive person and this made me feel as if it wasn’t an accomplishment making the team, and already discredited the team somewhat in my mind. We were an about 75% freshman team, which disappointed me as well. Why were no upperclassmen coming back? Practices started out inefficient. Audition taping was horrible. Our tapes were a mess. And we only got into one competition- Dandiya Dhamaka in Michigan- and this was after being taken off the waiting list. To top it off, everyone, at the University and other dance teams were already putting us down before we even performed. This wasn’t what I wanted or expected from hopes of being on a nationally competing university dance team.

BUT after first semester is when things really started to turn around. We realized our first, and at that time what we thought only, competition was right around the corner. January 28th. Practice became 7 days a a week. Yes, SEVEN. I essentially did nothing except Raas. Progress was slow, but it was sure. We were getting better, much better, and I felt it. I felt better and better about dancing, about the team as a whole. Spirits were rising.

Performance day came around. Finally, I felt as if we were a team. Everyone was so excited to do what they did best, dance. We all felt as if we actually even had a chance to WIN. Imagine that? We were chanting and screaming and laughing and sharing our nervousness minutes before we went on stage. Anyways, what happened on stage was I essentially came onto stage late for one of the songs basically disrupting the flow for everyone, and from that moment onwards I did the entire routine shaken up. I know a lot of people didn’t feel as if they did their best, and I think almost all of the team was disappointed in our performance. I completely lost it and cried the moment I got off stage, probably could have avoided that or waited till I wasn’t in public anymore but oh well.

I got over it eventually, simply because I had too. The rest of the weekend was a really good time, and the team really did bond and learn a lot about performing. I just wish we had done better, because we all know we could have, we had so many better run-throughs. But hey, new team, first competition, first time taking the stage together.

Anyways, now for the most important part. Dandiya Dhamaka WASN’T our last competition. A week after we very, very unexpectedly found out we got accepted into Dandiya on Fire at Penn State. One more chance for PantheRaas on March 24th. Let’s hope we make the best of it.

Actually I lied, this is the most important part… I LOVE my team <3.