Mudra TVs fusion dance competition brought forth some of the best dance talent in New England. Ten teams competed in the Rhythm 2008 event which was held at the Lowe Auditorium in Arlington High School, Arlington, MA on Sunday 23^rd November 2008. “We started with an initial set of nearly 20 teams and chose the top ten for this competition” said Ajit Nambiar, the force behind the competition as he welcomed the audience to the event.

Top Nach, Niritayalay, Dancing Divas, Epic Fusion, MIT Chamak, Aangikam Dance Academy, Rhythm in Fusion, Natya Mayuris and Mirch Masala were the finalist.  Local dance teachers Ranjani Saigal, Neha Parikh and Neena Gulhati served as judges for the event.  Alankar Decors provided the stage settings for the event.

“You are really are in for a treat tonight” said Arun Saigal and Sreya Arumugam who served as hosts for the evening.  The evening opened with Top Nach presenting a predominantly Bhangara style presentation. Shreya Nidadavolu, Anisha Uppal, Sivani Jonnalagadda, Monica Tedla, Arjun Shenoi,Shamika Panditt, Renk Kocturk and Sarah Tibi had some interesting formations and creative movements.

Next came Rhythm in Fusion with Ramya Tamisettin, Raasika Gopal, Santosh Nadimpalli, Meghna Bala, Neha Indoliya, Nove Ramesh, Ranita Ghosh and Sabrina Tobarran presented Fire and Creation choreographed by Mitali Biswas which was set to semi classical instrumental music. Dancing Divas with Alka Sathnur, Amulya Deepak, Ashwini Samaga, Mayuri Janapareddy, Niranjini Chandrasekar, Sapna Shetty, Smitha Bharadwaj, Sumana Navali and Sushma Yadupathi presented Amulya Deepak’s choreography set to Aaja Nachle.

Epic Fusion with Annu  and Mannu Kuriakose, Jesmi George, Anita Geevarghes, Meenu Rajendraprasad, Hannah George, Alice Pottackal and Rina Patel blended Indian Classical movements with that of hip hop for songs from Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi songs.

MIT Chamak with Shiva and Aarti Prakash, Nina Suresh, Sonia Nijhawan, Renuka Ramanathan, Akhansha Kumar, Anjali Muralidhar and Shubhi Goyal presented number with strong western dance moves  with a spattering of  Bharatanatyam dance moves introduced at random points.

Aangikam Dance Academy with Priya Jani , Aayushi Patel, Pankti Patel, Ekta Saksena, Neelam Mistry, Varsha Parikh, Priyanka Nawathe, Priyanka Patel, Tina Shah and Pooja Adesara presented Jasmine Shah’s choreography with Bharatanatyam and Kathak  movements.

Nrityalaya’s presentation of Mere Dolna  was performed by Mitali Biswas, Natasha,Avitree and Sabrina Tobarran, Shweta Athilat, Janhavee Deshpande, Palak Walia, Aparna Singh and Prerna Purohit.  Natya Mayuris with Vani Nidadavolu, Sandhya Tedla, Mamata Punjala, Sarada Jonnalagadda, Lalita Selvarajan, Anu Wadhwa and Shruthi Kuzippat presented Morning Raga’s Thaye Yashodha. The event ended with Columbia University’s Mirch Masala group with Ripla and Nipun Arora, Sampada Sonalkar, Aditi Rajoriya, Nalini Vasudevan, Preethi Narayan, Swati Kumar, Dhrumiin Shah, Nirav Vasa, Nirav Shah, Nikil Ramesh and Sumit Sharma.

Epic Fusion won the first place in the competition while MIT Chamak came in second. Aangikam Dance Academy won for the best costumes and Nrithyalaya won for the most creative moves.

The event also featured a special presentation by Omar Rajpute considered “The Prince of Pop”.  The event was a fundraiser for Ekal Vidyalaya.   Desi Threads provided some T-Shirts that given away to the audience.

Mudra TV has been chosen by NBC to scout for America Has Got Talent acts and you will be hearing from them.

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