The South Asian Student Association celebrated AU diversity with a variety show of South Asian culture and a night of dancing at its first annual cultural show Friday night in the Tavern.
Jalwa, held the weekend of the Indian festival Diwali, represented different aspects of primarily Indian culture, with acts including an ongoing humorous skit about arranged marriage, classical Indian dance and an energy-filled Bollywood performance.
Colleen McCracken, a freshman in the School of International Service, said she thought the show was well put together.
"People of all cultures could come together and enjoy South Asian culture without being critical of each other," she said.
It was also a chance to show visiting parents and families AU's diversity, according to SASA President Nathiya Nagendra.
"At Family Week, there was nothing else to show AU's different cultures," she said. "Tonight brought together people from different parts of South Asia."
One of the night's main events was a fashion show with a variety of different styles, patterns and clothes. SASA club members brought any culturally significant clothes they could find in their closets, Nagendra said.
The result was a beautiful combination of classical Indian outfits, complete with saris - colorful garments draped over the shoulders - and bindis - a decorative mark worn in the middle of the forehead - in addition to styles from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, she said.
The AU Bhangra team also gave their first performance of the year at the cultural show.
"Bhangra is a high energy [dance]," said Divya Narayanan, the team's choreographer and a sophomore in SIS. "It's also very simple to learn since there's no intricate footwork. It's a dance of the farmers."
For the first time with a co-ed crew, Bhangra Team danced along to traditional songs mixed with contemporary fusion songs, an audience favorite.
The audience cheered and clapped along to the choreographed group dances, which were based on the elaborate performances found in Bollywood musicals, according to Narayanan.
Then, in a much different style than the enthusiastic Bollywood one, two solo performances presented traditional classical Indian dance.
The classical Indian dance performed by high school sophomore Oralee Skeath was an unexpected but extraordinary part of the program, McCracken said.
Skeath, a student at Sandy Spring Friends School in Sandy Spring, Md., danced solo to the South Indian song "Rama Sabdam," an epic story of an ancient lord and his beautiful wife stolen away by a demon, Skeath said.
Her performance was also unique because Skeath is not South Asian and has studied Indian classical dancing and belly dancing for three years, she said.
Skeath's dance was a perfect example of how South Asian culture can be integrated into AU, said SASA Vice President Aly Jiwani.
"South Asia isn't just about the Indians," said Vishal Marwah, a past SASA member and 2008 College of Arts and Sciences graduate. "There's all different religions in the region, and we tried to represent many of those here tonight."
SASA found many more volunteers for the performance than in past years including students not from South Asia, he said.
But the sudden jump in the South Asian population at AU, and in the number of SASA members, in the last two years was completely unexpected, Marwah said.
"When I was here in 2000, there were just a handful of members in SASA," he said. "We never would have been able to do something like this."
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