The Indian Students Association filled the auditorium at Cullen Performance Hall with its 6th annual cultural program for NASHA 2013 on Friday Apr. 5.
Each year at UH, ISA hosts NASHA, a cultural competition in which students come together from various universities from all over Texas. The students put on this annual program in an effort to enrich crowds and share the experience of India’s bright culture by showcasing their talents in areas of dancing and singing.
“It’s so exciting to see all of the different types of dances and to see the diversity amongst the audience and their interest in our Indian culture,” said kinesiology junior Tulsi Mulji.
Throughout the program, students from all over Texas performed dances in various styles, ranging from bollywood dancing, classical raas — a fairly popular dance style in Gujarat — and even Bhangra, a traditional Punjabi dance.
13 teams danced competitively for a chance at winning 1st place in this year’s NASHA 2103 dance competition. ISA announced that the winners of this year’s annual competition would be competing for cash prizes up to $2,000.
Typically people would expect all the performers to be have an Indian background, but there was quit a bit of diversity within the performing groups as well. Chowl Bhangra and Alamo City Bhangra were among the dance teams that included non-Indian performers.
“It was interesting and unexpected to see the diversity within the performing groups,” accounting senior Hammad Iqbal said. “It’s nice to see people of other origins not only expressing interest in Indian culture but also taking part in it.”
As the program came to an end, the performers awaited the results. The performances were judged by a panel that had a background in Bollywood and classical Indian dances and songs.
This year’s third place winners were Chowl Bhangra from Rice University, Second place was awarded to our own UH Roarin’ Raas and this year’s first place winners were Dirty South Dandiya from the University of Texas at Austin.
“This year’s Nasha competition was truly amazing; it was great to see all the dances being performed to the new songs,” finance and marketing sophomore, Rahul Patel said. “It made me really happy to see that UH made second place; they have come a long way in just two short years.”
