An anxious energy of thrilling talent, a village-like support squad, ferrocious competitive performances on the spectacular SwaRaag stage along with Christy Mathew’s engulfing closing musical is what defined 2018 SwaRaag. It was yet another year of Sold Out crowd, where the audience came with high expectations…engaged in the performances and left fully satisfied with many singing and chanting ‘It was the best SwaRaag ever’!  Founder/President of SwaRaag Swathi Subramanian who anecdotally engaged the crowd throughout the evening said ‘each contestant came to win, and in some ways winners they were all as the audience celebrated every performance’. The new theme at SwaRaag was just that ‘having a theme’, whether it was a Group Dance, Solo or Duo every artist was rich in powerful themes from ‘Malala-Women’s empowerment’ and ‘Festive Celebrations’ to the ‘Meaning of Life’, with 11 group dance choreographers bringing in full-scale make-up, elaborate hair pieces and back drops to suit their theme.

Duo Dance categories in Junior and Senior were tough to judge… as each team brought a winning performance. Solo and spot were entertaining with even a dad entering the Spot choreography space for the first time. Mr. Anoop Panthaloor may not have made it to the final round of Spot… but he sure wowed the audience with his Govinda moves and paved the way for future dads to participate. Many boys confidently took to the stage this year and almost all of them tilted the wins in their favor. Singers took liberty at presenting in regional mixes which brought about a good change in pace.

At the end of the evening after all the contestants seemed to have left their footprints on stage, it was the gifted Christy Mathew - Director of Core Music Tutoring at Berklee School of Music who with his electrifying KEYS took the audience on an unexpectedly memorable journey. With nostalgic songs like Dil Hi Chota Sa, Cheez Badi Hai Mast, Kali Kali Aakhen, to today’s sensations Tum Hi ho, Aye Dil Hai Mushkil … he weaved through the times and moods with Bollywood Hits, beckoning the audience to provide the vocals… and they did not hold back but sang each song with great enthusiasm. As a pleaser to this crowd that became unwilling to relent, asking for more … Harini Iyer – SwaRaag song judge and member of the Berklee Indian ensemble took to the mike singing impromtu Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep’ and the sensuous ‘Vaseegara’. ‘This was a very special moment at SwaRaag’ said Founder/President Swathi Subramanian   â€˜An evening we shall remember long ... for in the end our dear Conductor/composer/pianist Christy Mathew had us drifting into his magical KEYS of blissful nostalgic songs ...making every audience member dad/mom/child come alive singing … some even dancing. They wanted many more ….It was too beautiful a moment and for that we sincerely thank Christy Mathew. ’

Ms. Swathi Subramanian shared ‘Several contestants and parents expressed how prestigious they found it to present and be a part of the SwaRaag platform and the months they took to plan their piece. But we as organizers are truly humbled to see their level of passion and creative presentations making all our hard work worthwhile. Our sincere thanks to the choreographers - Devika Dhawan, Sanjana Pulaparthi, Jai Kishan, Ekta Jain, Sheethal Dwaraka, Shaila Verma, Shreya Vijay, Puja Harkut, Sunita Ramnani, Vrinda Chandar & Serena Behera who brought their creativity to the SwaRaag stage. Our very special thanks to eClinicalWorks for sponsoring the trophies and supporting our event – their support went a very long way!’  

Choreographers represented at SwaRaag 2018:   Devika Dhawan | Sanjana Pulaparthi | Jai Kishan | Ekta Jain | Sheethal Dwaraka | Shaila Verma | Shreya Vijay | Puja Harkut | Sunita Ramnani | Vrinda Chandar & Serena Behera 

Swathi Subramanian: Founder/President/Program Host of SwaRaag Performing Arts, Inc.

Super Efficient and Rocking SwaRaag TEAM

This well organized program was only thanks to the efficient team of SwaRaag Rockstars – Anandini Sekhar, Rekha Palriwala, Mahesh Palriwala, Rens Methratta, Swetha Subramanian, Asha Manish, Shobha Shastry, Hiral Parikh, Christy Mathew, Kalaimangai Anbalagan, Ramesh Madhav Rao, Jai Kishan, Aariana Subramanain Dabade, Meena Subramanian, Vaibhav Dabade and Swathi Subramanian. 

Presiding over the SwaRaag Panel were honorable Judges: 

Final Dance Judges: 

Meena Subramanyam | Kalaimangai Anbalagan | Asha Nadipuram 

Final Song Judges:  

Shyam Vai  | Uma Shankar | Harini Iyer

Audition Dance Judges:         

Anandini Sekhar | Swathi Subramanian

Audition Song Judges:

Sudha Lakshmi Rao | Hiral Parikh | Nikhil Pendharkar

SWARAAG 2018 WINNERS

GROUP DANCE SENIOR Winning Teams                      

1^st Place:   Jumanji | Choreographer – DEVIKA DHAWAN | DFD Academy

Group Members: Aanya Parmar | Amy Koleth | Anika Shroff | Arya Kurian | Dhwanee Patel | Divya Sambathkumar | Isha Mehta | Manavi Vajhallya | Meghana Edpuganti | Neha Chandra | Prajusha Reddy | Pritha Yalakkishettar | Rayna Sharma | Roma Mistry | Ryana Riaz | Shravya Sathi | Shreya Godhani | Shreya Madhu | Shreya Patel | Shruthi Puranik | Shruti Gajjar | Sneha Shetty | Suhani Holla 

2^nd Place:  Meaning of Life | Choreographer - SANJANA PULAPARTHI

Group Members: Sanjana Pulaparthi | Laasya Vemparala | Vyshnavi Vedala | Vaishnavi Desai | Prinika Kondoju | Gayatri Ankalu | Anisha Macharla | Sreya Sankar | Akshita Vaidyanathan 

3^rd Place:  Tale of Two Sisters | Choreographer - JAIKISHAN | Jai Ho Dance School

Group Members: Rhea Anand | Suhani Patni | Aariana Subramanian Dabade | Siya Arde | Diya Reddi Pidatala | Siya Shah | Sareena Kansra | Reeya Kansra | Sriya Reddi Pidatala | Alopa Waje

GROUP DANCE JUNIOR Winning Teams                        

 1^st Place:   Festive Dhamaka | Choreographer – SANJANA PULAPARTHI

Group Members: Prisha Adduri | Mahika Macharla | Pranathi Kondoju | Sudiksha Vedala | Haasini Vemparala | Rewa Vemparala | Sri Hamsika Tummala | Pooja Parisa | Akshaya Kolluri 

2^nd Place:   Nashua Sitaras | Choreographer – SHEETHAL DWARAKA

Group Members: Avani Shettigar | Meenakshi Dwaraka | Bhavya Aeron | Tanvi Nawale | Mithra Senthilraja | Zoha Noufal | Nitya Punnoose | Zia Saiyed | Thara Mary Paul 

3^rd Place:   Hocus Pocus | Choreographer – DEVIKA DHAWAN | DFD Academy

Group Members: Reya Ghelani | Sana Godhani | Manasvini Panguluri | Irene Ghosh | Ushasvini Panguluri | Arushi Biswas | Rebecca Koleth | Miley Arora | Shreya Soni | Apoorva Hegde | Vismaya Ashok | Riya Patel | Anika Rao | Anulekha Sahu 

GROUP DANCE ‘DAZZLING MOMS’ Winning Teams

1^st Place:   Marriage with a Twist | Choreographer – EKTA JAIN | Ekta Dance Academy

Group Members: Ekta Jain | Swati Ladiwal | Neelima Muddada | Disha Bheda | Manisha Makwana | Mukta Munjal | Manisha Kumar | Geetanjali Virmani | Bhumika Seth | Rohini Swayambhatla | Radhika Chintapalli | Sarita Das | Shilpa Hande | Karuna Gurbaxani | Vinita Sharma | Ananya Gunti | Avnika Gunti | Pradeep Singh 

2^nd Place: Malala | Choreographer – PUJA HARKUT | Jab We Dance Team

Group Members: Puja Harkut | Neha Kaushal | Anagha S Phanse | Suchitra Shinde | Sirisha | Snehalata Kadam | Nidhi Bhatter | Prisha Rathi 

3^rd Place: Luca Chup | Choreographer – SHAILA VERMA | Shaila Verma School of  Dance

Group Members: Pratyusha Myneni | Resmi Nair | Neetu Gupta | Bindu Balaji | Shraddha Patel | Debbie Goswami | Sujata Sharma | Kalyani Kanuri | Lakshmi Jemolla | Surabhi Saxena | Deepa Chaparala | Divya Chadhury | Rasmi Kutty | Jayshree | Soumya Dharmateja | Madhuri Marate | Swetha Meka | Srividya R 

SOLO DANCE SENIORS

1^st Place:   Shrinivass AB
2^nd Place:  Aashi Kulkarni

SOLO DANCE JUNIORS

1^st Place:   Isha Mehta
2^nd Place:  Navein Sribalaharan

DUO DANCE SENIORS

1^st Place:   Udaya Banu Nagarajan & Nivetha Ravichandran
2^nd Place:  Nagaraju C & Sowmia K

DUO DANCE JUNIORS

1^st Place:   Ashwin Nair & Samarth Basanth
2^nd Place:  Tarika Sridhar & Shivani Shah

SPOT CHOREOGRAPHY

Winner:   Sowmia K

SOLO SONG Age 9 - 15

1^st Place:     Olivia Joseph
2^nd Place:   Harshini Pathivada

SOLO SONG Age 16 – 36

1^st Place:    Juhi Lalwani
2^nd Place:  Shivani Singh

SOLO SONG Age 36 & Up

1^st Place:   Subrajit Basu
2^nd Place:  Anil Rijhsinghani

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