STORY BY ANGELA UFHEIL
Drake University’s South Asian Student Association (SASA) spent March 28-29 at St. Louis University.
They attended SLU’s Indian Student Association’s Spring Show, a mash-up of Indian culture that included dance, song, and skits.
SASA president Nikita Khara enjoyed each performance, but says that her favorite was the classical dance.
“To coordinate that many people and with such intricate moves and keep to the tradition of the dance and keep it as authentic as possible is very difficult,” Khara said. “And I love how they put a very modern twist on it by synthesizing modern, pop styles with Indian music.”
Sophomore Drake student Anthony Pawnell also enjoyed the classical dance. “They were the most sharp, the most clean, everything was precise,” Pawnell said.
Pawnell also enjoyed the skits between each performance, which depicted two brothers starting their freshman year of college. Their parents go undercover to make sure their sons do not make mistakes.
“The dialogue about the generation gap reminded me of my uncle,” Pawnell said. “He’s one of the older guys who wants to be young and hip, but he’s not, at all. I just related to it personally.”
However, some people thought the skits lasted too long. “I felt like they took away from the rest of the show,” Khara said.
Tikku George, the treasurer for SLU’s ISA, said that each part of the skit was only supposed to last five minutes. However, improvisation from the actors exceeded that limit.
George was overall happy with the show, especially the large turnout of 550 audience members.
“We heard a lot of good things from a lot of the audience, and a lot of the participants were really happy as well,” George said.
The fun continued with an after set at The Landing, a club in downtown St. Louis.
SLU’s ISA set up buses to shuttle students to the party, but a series of delays left many standing outside in the cold for an hour.
“The bus schedule was really thrown off because a student had to be taken to the hospital,” George said.
George did not have details about the incident, but explained that the ambulance stopped the bus from leaving on time.
“Certain things such as traffic and the ambulance were just out of our control,” George said.
“At the time I was pretty upset about it, but now I feel very neutral towards the topic,” Khara said of standing in the cold.
“There was nothing they could do. I have a lot of empathy for them.”
After an hour of huddling together, the Drake group crammed three to a eat on the bus, eventually making it to the after-set. Students danced to a mix of Bollywood and American pop music.
“I enjoyed it,” Khara said. “Everyone got a chance to really get to know one another.”
Khara said 20 Drake students attended, a record for SASA’s spring trip. She was excited to see that many were not of South Asian dissent.
“It shows that people from different background and different perspectives can get together and have fun, even though that’s maybe not what they’re used to,” Khan said.
