How I became a Bombay in the Bay dictator

February 11, 2015 — by Simi Srivastava

As my parents never fail to point out, there are very few activities I am willing to get out of pajamas on a Saturday morning for.

As my parents never fail to point out, there are very few activities I am willing to get out of pajamas on a Saturday morning for. Yet the past month, as one of two presidents for the Indian Cultural Awareness Club, I have been living, breathing and screaming (literally) all things Bombay in the Bay.

The show debuts Feb. 13 and though I have thoroughly enjoyed wearing out my new converse, losing my voice several times and foregoing many hours of sacred sleep in the process of creating the show, I could not be more excited to get a break from constant dance practice all day, every day.

My morning starts off with a Bhangra dance practice at 11 a.m. Bhangra, a lively, high energy dance from the Indian state of Punjab, is hardly the type of activity most teenagers are ecstatic to do first thing in the day.

However, as a morning person myself, I’m usually ten times more awake than everyone else and annoyingly excited to be dancing so early on in the day (even though it’s actually already 11 o’clock).

“COME ON GUYS! GET INTO FORMATION! WE ONLY HAVE A FEW WEEKS LEFT! LET’S GO, GO, GO! IT’S PRACTICE TIME!!”

After giving this motivating speech, I’m still met with blank stares from people who are still half asleep.

As one of the choreographers of the dance, the task to teach all 20 performers falls upon me and my three fellow coordinators. When one is trying to lead a large group of people, being 5’3’’ and having a voice that doesn’t carry very far isn’t the best combination. It often takes me at least 10 minutes of shouting at the top of my voice, jumping up and down waving my arms and eventually weaving my way through the crowd to silence each individual before I have everyone’s attention.

After Bhangra, I have a short grace period of an hour in which I manage to scarf down some food and maybe get some homework done (Homework as a second semester senior? What a wild idea!) before my next commitment: AGD, the senior All-Girls’ Dance in Bombay in the Bay.

This year, AGD features the 13 girls who have participated in Bombay in the Bay for all four years of high school.

Although slightly less stressful for me than Bhangra is, AGD is intense. While under the strict supervision of drill sergeant choreographer senior Varna Jammula, the other girls and I must practice each portion of our dance to perfection. When she’s not looking though, you’ll probably find us secretly eating junk food or sneaking off to Safeway to get some.

After AGD comes the Senior Dance. As a choreographer of this dance as well, I often find myself in the same situation as that of Bhangra practice, but worse.

Now, instead of working with 20 half asleep teenagers at ungodly hours of the morning (really, people snooze through and miss practice if it’s before noon), I now have to assemble 30 people at once at 7 p.m., which seems to be the rowdiest part of their days.

I swear, goldfish have longer attention spans than Bombay in the Bay dancers. I have yet to understand what is so difficult about standing still when being placed into formations! While my peers casually chatter about parties, the latest gossip or drama  (because  unlike me, they actually have lives outside of BNB), I am scrambling to read the scribbles of formations.

It’s a vicious cycle. I place people where they need to be and by the time I’m done setting the other side of the “stage,” they have begun milling about like a pack of sheep, undoing all the work I have just finished. It almost always culminated in my running in circles, herding dancers into their formations.

My friends like to make make a game of testing how high my voice can go when I’m yelling at practice. It appears that they’ve come to the consensus that there are three axis of stress, volume and exasperation that determine the pitch of my voice.

To wrap up the evening comes an ICAC officer meeting to plan logistics for the show as well as write and rehearse our skit that the dances are integrated into. During these meetings, the other officers discussed everything that still needed to be done before the show.

Though this may seem like an outlet for my frustration and anger at all things BNB, I do really love working with my friends to raise money for a good cause. In my time as club president this year as well as choreographer in the past years, I’ve learned so much and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

Writing this story was fun, but I seriously need to get back to practice. Please excuse me while I go yell at 40 seniors.

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