Fast-paced music, elegant costumes and gracious movement are all elements that ASU Aag piece together to form a story. One does not think of obstacles as a main ingredient to a fusion dance team.
Obstacles, though, seemed to take center stage this year with ASU Aag, a modern Bollywood dance team.
Computer sciences senior Ramya Baratam and Rohini Gnanasambanthan, a junior double majoring in supply chain management and economics, are co-captains and spent the better half of the school year attempting to get the team into competitions.
Although they made it to last year’s The Manhattan Project, a yearly premier South Asian Fusion Dance Competition, ASU Aag fell short this time around.
“The worst thing [we went through] was just trying to get into the competitions. That was like our main goal and we did not succeed,” Gnanasambanthan says.
It wasn’t that the team did not have the skills necessary to compete; it was a combination of factors that played into their defeat.
“There are a lot of things like drama and stuff within the team that can happen,” Baratam says. “That was a bad thing to happen last semester, unfortunately because that’s when we were applying for competitions.”
As the saying goes, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and that’s exactly how ASU Aag responded to this hindrance.
“Whatever happened last semester is kind of made us stronger as a team this semester. It’s not a bad thing. I’d say we’re better off,” Baratam says.
ASU Aag means fire in Hindi and Gnanasambanthan says that they thought it not only represented the passion the team has, but also tied in with being a Sun Devil.
Since this is only the second year that ASU Aag has been a team on campus, the fact that they are even auditioning for national competitions is an accomplishment within itself.
ASU Aag originally began three years ago as a fun way to promote Indian culture on campus. Most of the first participants were volunteers who didn’t have to audition to be on the team.
“We were doing it for fun basically, at the beginning, and then we decided to make it official,” Gnanasambanthan says.
While ASU Aag is technically a “fusion” dance team, many may associate them solely with Bollywood dancing. But that's not the case.
Bollywood dancing is comparable to dancing seen on Broadway, with big flamboyant movements and acting incorporated into the moves.
But Aag is a mixture, or fusion, of different types of dancing, from hip-hop to ballroom, and also a form of modern Indian dance called bhangra. It still includes important elements of Bollywood and is centered around classical and Bollywood dance moves. Each performance involves eight songs and has a certain theme to it and it is ASU Aag’s job to preform the theme by telling a story.
“Within each song there is a storyline and you have to convey that through your facial expressions,” Gnanasambanthan says.
Clad with glistening, midriff baring tops and harem style pants, ASU Aag portray their story through sharp, fluid movements accompanied by quick tempo music. But what might be surprising to an outsider is the use of dialogue, or acting, in between the songs.
“It’s more like a musical where there are songs within the film and we are trying to replicate that but without the film part,” Baratam adds.
A lot of the time the music has much to do with the dance form. Even though traditional Indian songs are used to introduce the performers, usually hip-hop music is used for the next song. Elements, such as the musical instrument called a sitar, are incorporated into the hip-hop to add a special Indian flavor.
Even though ASU Aag is not competing this semester, they are still performing in various events around campus and off.
“We get a lot of organizations ask us to perform at their events,” Gnanasambanthan says.
ASU Aag will still be traveling this semester to visit a competition in Los Angeles this month. They are also making use of this time to bond and grow as a team.
“A lot of people on the team do not have a background in dance they just enjoy being around the team,” Baratam says. “It’s the social aspect that they really enjoy.”
ASU Aag welcomes all students to join by reaching them by searching ASU Aag on their Facebook page.
Contact the reporter at mnschwab@asu.edu
