The South Asian Nation (SAN) Inc. proudly hosted the South Asian Showdown (SAS) competition 2019 on Saturday, February 23, 2019 at the John Hancock Hall in the heart of Boston with thousands of cheering audiences and participants from all over North America.

South Asian Nation (SAN) is a non-profit dance and mentorship organization based in Boston, MA. It consists of young professionals, undergraduate, and graduate students ready and excited to share the South Asian culture. It is dedicated to promoting South Asian culture and enriching the socio-ethnic identity of our youths. SAN hopes to enrich the social and cultural lives of the communities from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives since the South Asian culture is continuing to dominate headlines with movies, sound tracks, foods, dances and languages. This year’s SAS competition was its 10th year anniversary show after the huge success of the last 9 year’s competitions.

SAN aims to highlight one of the most popular and entertaining types: Bollywood Fusion which is the combination of various styles of dance including classical, contemporary, Bhangra, Hip-Hop, etc. For many modern and young dancers, the Bollywood-Fusion has become a popular choice. SAS selected 12 teams from Arizona, Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts out of almost 30 teams to the competition this year. The following talented teams namely: Arizona State University’ Andaaz, Brown University’s Badmaash, Boston University's all-girls dance team Chankaar, Boston University's all-male dance team Khatartnak, Cornell University’s Sitara, Philadelphia based Drexel University’s all-girls Jhalak,  Duke University’s Rhydhun, Macaulay Honors College's Deewane, New York University's Dillagi, Rutgers University’s SAPA (South Asian Performing Artists) team, University of Connecticut’s Surya, University of Texas at Austin’s Punjabbawockeez participated in the competition and showcased their hidden creativity. These teams presented brilliantly their own mini-stories on themes like love, relationships, broken hearts, city life, dyslexia child's struggle and others on stage set to Indian music and Bollywood style of dance featuring, theme, storyline and expression.

Qualified judges namely Deepta Banik, Devika Dhawan, Divyanka Gupta, Jeevan Thomas, and Tanya Thanawalla selected the final winners of the South Asian Showdown Competition 2019 based on their scores on each criterion on the selection list. The teams that crowned as the Showdown Champions were Drexel University’s all-girls Jhalak with the first place, Rutgers University’s SAPA with the second place, and Arizona State University’ Andaaz with the third place. The masters of ceremony were Ms. Shreya Patel Ranganarayan and Pravin Patel, who presented the program very elegantly and stylishly.

1 Place: Drexel Jhalak
2nd Place: RU Sapa
3rd Place: ASU Andaaz

Here is a quick description about each winning team:

Drexel Jhalak (1st Place):

Drexel Jhalak is a premier, female, South-Asian fusion dance team. We express our Indian culture and heritage in a unique and eccentric art form. We express ourselves through different dance styles from throughout India and fuse them with western dance styles such as hip-hop, jazz, ballet, etc.

RU Sapa (2nd Place):

The South Asian Performing Artists of Rutgers University, made history in 2000 by emerging as the first co-ed South Asian dance troupe in the United States. Founded by a group of students who shared a passion for both the art of dance and stage performance while each contributing their own style and background of dance. SAPA introduced the Rutgers community to dance forms such as Bollywood, hip hop, bhangra, bnat, southie, contemporary, and girls dance. Even to this day, whether having had formal training or simply need an outlet for creativity, the team is unified in our aspirations to fuse South Asian schools of dance with the innovation of Western styles.

ASU Andaaz (3rd Place):

All the way from Arizona State University, ASU Andaaz is Arizona's ONLY competitive Bollywood fusion dance team and has been around for six years now. Andaaz has competed in several cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, and more. They love to show their passion for dance and Indian culture both in Arizona and all around the nation! Everybody go nuts for ASU Andaaz!!!

SAN’s grand sponsors were Curry House and Punjabi Television Channel (PTC). A famous Indian restaurant, Curry House served very delicious food to all the hungry audiences. SAN thanked all the audiences and the teams for their active participation and involvement in the program and making it a grand success. SAN also thanked the sponsors for their sincere support and encouragement.

One of the audiences said, “I like South Asian Showdown because it brings the best Bollywood and fusion dance teams to one stage. This was the fabulous showcase of Indian dances and culture. It was awesome and effective too” – to the reporter.

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