Brown Badmaash, Brown University’s only nationally competitive South Asian dance troupe, hosted its annual performance show on April 27th.  Over 400 audience members, many of them from the Providence and Boston areas, packed into Salomon Hall on the University’s main green for a night of acting, singing, dancing, and lots of fun.
 
The show started with an interesting combination of old and new: bharatanatyam and kathak dance moves choreographed to "Breathless," a modern Indian pop song.  Bhangra came next, complete with lively music, traditional Punjabi attire, striped poles, and saaps (wooden clappers).  Brown students wowed the audience with "Tere Bina," a lyrical dance rendition of one of A.R. Rahman’s famous melodies.  The first half of the show closed with an amusing and well-choreographed Bollywood medley, which told the story of a boy winning a girl’s heart through funny narrations and popular Bollywood songs.
 
The second half of the show began with a vibrant raas piece filled with partnered dance steps and plenty of stunts.  In "Pygmalion," two Brown students used interpretive dance and classical music to retell the ancient Greek legend of a sculptor who fell in love with his creation.  An energetic hiphop piece with a touch of bhangra followed.  The show ended with two exciting fusion dance pieces: "Khish Bish" and "Desi Comics."  "Desi Comics," in which the hero, the villain, and his henchmen popped out of a giant comic book prop to dance and face off for the heroine’s heart, was Brown Badmaash’s official competition piece for the year.

Guest performances by Divine Rhythm, Attitude Dance Company, and Satrangi (a newly founded Hindi a cappella group) helped make the night truly memorable.  Thank you to everyone who came!
 
MORE INFORMATION: Brown Badmaash was founded three years ago by a dozen dedicated Brown students and has since tripled in size and successfully participated in competitions all over the Northeast, most recently ranking 2nd at the Desi Dance Project in Syracuse, New York.  We focus on breaking down the boundaries between South Asian and western dance, hence our rather unorthodox name which (in our opinion) sums us up pretty well.

Bhangra, hiphop, garba/raas, lyrical, South Asian classical, salsa, Bollywood - you name the dance style, and we have someone working on tying it into our next performance.  We bring South Asian fusion to a whole new level.  Check out our website (http://students.brown.edu/brownbadmaash/) and come to our next event to find out why!

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