Colorful costumes, exciting music, and beautiful dancing filled the Center for the Arts on Saturday night for the 14th annual Muqabla dance competition hosted by the Indian Student Association (ISA).
According to ISA President Nisha Patel, each year students and community members gather to watch various teams perform traditional Indian dances and compete to win big prizes.
"It's the biggest event that the Undergraduate Indian Student Association holds," she said. "The last couple of years it has been a sold out event."
Patel explained that Muqabla originated at UB and has always been held in late November around Thanksgiving. Throughout the years the event has changed very little.
"We've always tried to keep it traditional, we haven't really gone into doing something new," she said. "We've always put something new into the show and tried it, but we've always (ended up keeping it) the traditional way."
This year five competitive dance teams from various New York universities participated in the event, as well as three exhibition teams from UB.
After singing both the Indian and American national anthems, the crowd settled down to watch both competitive and noncompetitive teams show off their skills.
Two local eight-year-old girls who choreographed their own dance started the show with much crowd support. Following their performance, teams from the University of Rochester, Binghamton University and SUNY Geneseo competed for bragging rights as well as prize money. The teams excited the crowd with fast paced dancing and upbeat music. Noncompetitive exhibition teams from UB performed as well. The large crowd in the CFA was anything but shy as they showed support for the various teams.
Tamera Akarah, a junior biomedical science major was excited to be back a third time at Muqabla.
"I like the dances. I like the ethnic part of it," she said.
Teams performed many traditional dances with a modern spin. Their colorful costumes and intricate dances made an overall lasting impression.
Sonia Sawkar, a senior pharmacology student especially enjoyed the performance by UB's exhibition team, Jhalak.
"I liked Jhalak, (they were) my favorite," she said.
The last performance of the night was by RandomNation, a multi-cultural and multi-national group of UB students who performed both traditional and modern Indian music.
After the performances, Patel announced the winners of the Muqabla competition. A trophy and third place went to SUNY Geneseo Bhangra. Second place went to the University of Rochester Bhangra, who took home $750 and a trophy. Binghamton University Masti won the coveted first place prize of $1500 and a trophy.
Ajay Matta, a freshman undecided major, who has been attending since his freshman year in high school, thoroughly enjoyed the event.
"It's crazy," he said. "Every year they one it up."
According to Patel, Muqabla has become a very well known event which involves lots of planning.
"It's an intercollegiate competition, we have a lot of help from the outside, the Buffalo community and Rochester as well," she said.
ISA has been fundraising since summer to promote the event as well as to be able to have prize money for the first and second place teams, Patel said. Sponsors and donations also played a large part in raising funds for Muqabla.
According to Patel, Muqabla is the largest event that the Indian Student Association holds, as there are various cultural events that take place throughout both semesters, as well as many other events throughout the year.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
