Competitive Dance Captain

Indian Classical Dance, amongst other things, has taught me about balance, time management and leadership.

I began as a scrawny three-year-old precariously holding her demi-plié or aramandi, perhaps the single most important posture in Bharatanatyam, an Indian classical dance form. Not being thrown off, I spent long hours fine-tuning my craft. In my devotion to practice, I learned of time-management. Often, this meant finishing homework while inching through busy Kuala Lumpur traffic. It meant conjugating Thai verbs backstage. And it meant braving through thundery Singapore showers for the pursuit of two diplomas, one for high school and one for dance.

When college acceptances rolled in, my excitement to pursue Aerospace at Georgia Tech was amplified by the prospect of auditioning for their nationally acclaimed dance team GT Pulse. You can only imagine the shock, honor, and thrill when early September I received an email prefaced with, ‘We are so excited to say that ....’. Did this mean that I would be one of the dancers in their next video? I giddily reloaded their most recent performance. The mythology came alive on stage, a snakehead coiling in unison to music, unlike anything the classical circuit had ever heard before. The video concluded as they ran to the front to receive their trophy which applauded their vision and creativity.

I joined GT Pulse in AY 16-17 and became the first sophomore captain of the team in AY 17-18.

Georgia Tech Pulse

National Competitive Classical Dance Team

Georgia Tech Pulse is a nationally competitive collegiate classical Indian dance team from Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia. Pulse includes mainly the styles of Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi in their pieces and most often place first or second in national competitions in the United States. In 2017, Pulse presented Kalachakra - The Wheel of Time, in 2018 we presented The Story of Karna and in 2019 we presented a social justice piece on Atlanta's Human Trafficking situation.

We were the first-place team at Hansini 2017. Hansini was hosted by students from the University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) and was held on January 28th, 2017 at Granville Arts Center in Garland, Texas.

We were the second-place team at Hansini 2018 and third-place at Mayuri 2018. Mayuri was held at the Univesity of Maryland on February 23rd, 2018 at their university theater.

In 2019 we performed as the only classical exhibition piece at Bollywood America. Bollywood America is the largest fusion championship in the world that brings together the best of the best Bollywood fusion dance teams to compete for the ultimate championship. The show attracts thousands of audience members and showcases the best collegiate Bollywood Dance teams of the United States and Canada. The overarching mission for Bollywood America is to push talent to its limits and spread interest in entertainment and South Asian culture through Bollywood dance around the world.