A {snowy} weekend of dance!
This past weekend I went to my first collegiate dance competition as part of Lakshya, a student-run South Asian Fusion dance team here at Vandy! Although we didn’t place in the top 3, it was still a super fun experience and we cannot wait for our next competition coming up in a few weeks.
The competition, Nasha, was hosted by Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana–a 6-hour drive north of Nashville. 7 fusion teams and 7 raas teams were present from all over the US, including us, Vandy Raas, Michigan, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Indiana, Iowa, Duke, UChicago, Northwestern, WashU, Arizona, and Case Western. Here’s a rundown of how the weekend went!
Wednesday and Thursday before the comp: On Instagram, each dance team participated in a social media contest in which the team with the highest number of “likes” would earn 15 additional minutes of practice time on the morning of the comp. Although on Wednesday morning we were around 50 likes, thinking we would be lucky to get 200, by Thursday we had passed 1500! Thanks to support from our friends, family, and other student orgs, we came through and earned the extra practice time – as well as increased our campus presence via social media clout. (Follow our insta! @vulakshya)
Friday: Road trip! In a caravan of three cars, we set out on the road north and in 6 hours had reached Purdue. We arrived to a warm welcome from our Purdue liaisons who had decorated one of our hotel rooms, providing us with comp t-shirts and candy! In the evening, we went to dinner and a mixer where we danced and played games with the other teams in attendance. Long day!
Saturday: Competition day! Though we barely had a chance to get enough sleep, we woke up bright and early around 6:30 am in order to make it to our scheduled practice time, which was the first slot of the day because of us having won the extra 15 minutes. After practice time both offstage and onstage, we spent a good bit of time rewatching and cleaning our dance set, so that we could be sure to fix everything before the actual competition in the evening. We then ate a much-needed brunch and took much-needed naps in the afternoon and relaxed before getting ready to dance!
The show started around 6 and went until 10 pm, and we gave it our all during our 10 minute set – this was it! This was what we had been preparing for so long! It went by so fast, but I always enjoy that rush of adrenaline while on stage. It was also very cool watching the other teams perform, and we saw what we could aspire towards. Then, after all the teams performed and the judges were deciding on winners, Arjun, a singer-songwriter from London, performed! Very fun indeed.
After the show ended, we had a small celebration as a group in our hotel and celebrated the fact that we did our very best at this comp and even though we did not place, we recognized how much we, as a team, had achieved! That was all that mattered, so we partied! Our liaisons helped make the weekend such a fun experience even during some logistical hiccups, and we also became so much closer as a team.
Being away for the weekend also made us appreciate Vandy and Nashville so much! Nothing against Indiana, but it was very cold and kind of gloomy, and the surrounding town was not nearly as exciting of a place as Nashville. We also saw how as a team we were some of the most excited and friendly people there, which to me, reflects the type of personality that is common at Vandy, those who put in the work but also know how to have a good time doing it! Overall, despite the cold and lack of sleep, this competition weekend was an experience I’ll remember for a long time and I am so excited to go to more in the near future!
Feel free to email me if you would like to learn more about performing student orgs or South Asian dance at Vandy! deniz.gungor@vanderbilt.edu