Bhangra Elite Dance Club brings energetic performance to halftime show

At Saturday's football game between UNC and the University of Pittsburgh, three of UNC's cultural dance organizations, including Bhangra Elite, performed at the halftime show.

On the large field in Kenan Stadium, a total of about 25 dancers in Bhangra Elite performed a bhangra dance routine, a fast-paced genre of dance originating from the Punjab region of north India. 

Bhangra Elite was the last of the three dance teams to perform at the show, following Chalkaa and UNC Ek Taal. They performed facing the student section. Members wore chaadar, long garments worn around the waist; kurtas, traditional shirts, with vests on top of the kurtas; and phuman strings, which are worn wrapped around their arms and shoulders. Women wore chunni, long scarves attached to their backs, and men wore paghs, a turban worn around the head. 

Bhangra Elite typically dances their sets to recorded Punjabi music mixed by DJs. However, on Saturday, each of the three groups performed newly choreographed routines to live music played by The Marching Tar Heels. Bhangra Elite specifically danced to a famous Bollywood song called "Rang De Basanti," and the audience cheered while team members performed a fast-paced set. 

Founded in 1996, the team learns different routines and performs at various events and competitions throughout the year. For competitions and performances such as the halftime show, members prepare extensively, practicing five to six days a week. 

Bhangra Elite’s team members include students from various regions throughout north and south India, and members have a wide range of experience with bhangra-style dancing, with some members even having no experience when they audition. 

Anjali Nelatoor, a sophomore neuroscience major and public outreach chair for the team, said that she joined the team as a first-year.

“So I actually never danced before, and strongly disliked dance,” she said. “But last year, my friend and I decided, why not try out for the dance team? I'm pretty involved with my culture, and so I decided to try something new.”

Last year, the team won second place at Magic City Maza,  a national competition held at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Their return to Kenan Stadium on Saturday was their first performance at a football game in seven years. 

As a genre, bhangra is an upbeat incorporation of traditional moves once performed by Punjab farmers in the 1700s to celebrate the upcoming harvests.  

“[Bhangra] was a dance that many of the village people would do for all sorts of events, from harvest to entirely community-wide celebrations," Rachit Keyal, the team’s performance coordinator, said. 

Anya Abhayakumar, one of the team captains for Bhangra Elite, said that the team did a specific dance move called faslaan, which is supposed to replicate farmers spreading crops. Other dance moves consist of bouncing and rapid arm movement.

Preparing for the halftime show proved difficult, since the team recently brought in new members from auditions in September. Additionally, many members struggled with stage fright.

“There's a really big mental barrier that you have to get over knowing that you're going to be up on a stage in front of so many people, performing, and just sort of being able to recognize that, even if you mess up, no one's gonna notice or care," Keyal said. 

The members said they aspire for the club to not only continue growing but to foster cultural connections to Indian American students at UNC as well as showcase the University’s diversity.

"Not only would you be able to join such a fun team and be able to do the dance style, you'd be joining a family and a community, and you'd be able to learn so much from us," Abhayakumar said. 

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