With national competition, Moksha hopes for higher profile
Moksha, USC’s co-ed Bollywood fusion dance team, works to combine Western and traditional Indian styles of dancing, and now they’ll be performing on their biggest stage yet.
The team was recently accepted to compete in the Manhattan Project 4.0, a prestigious national dance competition in New York, in December.
Since Fall 2006, Moksha has competed in various regional dance competitions. But this one, said Shravya Budidi, a fourth-year biology student and the team’s vice president, is the group’s first major contest.
“We have competed in Georgia and Tennessee and other regional competitions,” she said. “This is the first time we’re going to compete up north, and this is a very big and important competition. We weren’t expecting to get in, but we are beyond excited to go.”
More than 40 teams applied to the competition, and only 10 were accepted; they’ll be one of a smattering of teams from all over the country. To be included, Budidi said, is important to the team.
“It’s basically a semifinal fusion national competition,” she said. “It’s a very big deal because whoever wins this competition goes to Bollywood America, which is very prestigious, because if you win that ... you’re the best fusion team in the country.”
Budidi said Moksha is elated to perform on the same stage as some of the members’ role models.
Many of the teams competing have performed at Bollywood America and placed well, Budidi said, and the team has looked up to them.
“To actually get to perform and be on the same stage with them is amazing,” she said.
David Reisman, a professor of cellular molecular biology and the team’s faculty adviser, agreed.
“It’s a little scary because these dance groups are really known, but I think they’re going to work really hard and do really well,” Reisman said.
Regardless of the outcome of the competition, Budidi said she thinks the competition will be a good learning experience for Moksha.
“Our team is very new, and we’ve only have four or five returning members,” she said. “We have a lot to learn about each other, so the trip — and dancing together — will help us get closer. Also, a lot of people haven’t had stage experience yet, so they will grow as dancers.”
The team hopes competing in New York could help them break through and that the national attention will help them gain recognition back home — at USC and around the community.
“We’ve always been trying to get our name out,” Budidi said. “We also wanted to prove ourselves to USC ... A lot of people didn’t believe in us and didn’t take us seriously. Now that we got in, people will take us seriously.”