Maasti dances its way to the stage

By Sofie Daiberl •

NSU Maasti dance team practices their hip-hop routine. COURTESY OF IKSITA NALLAPANENI.

In 2015, Stacey Illikal and Annie Mohanan founded NSU Maasti, a Bollywood-fusion dance team. What started as a small dance team to celebrate Indian culture has greatly grown and evolved.

NSU Maasti has attended three dance competitions this semester and plans to compete in Philadelphia in March. In November 2022, it won the Diwali Dhamaka competition in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

“They have competitions all over the U.S,” said Deeksha Kommireddi, one of the dance captains and senior double major in biology and behavioral neuroscience. “We’ve been to Georgia, there are some in California and Texas.”

Kommireddi has been involved with NSU Maasti since she was a freshman and has seen how the team incorporates new dances based on Indian culture.

“Some of the styles that we do are hip-hop [and] Koothu, which is a dance native to my region in India. We also do bhangra, which is a dance native to North Indians, classical dance and con-temporary,” said Kommireddi.

Recently, NSU Maasti started practicing a new form of dance called Dandiya Raas, which in-corporates sticks within the dances.

“One of the songs that we have this year is from a really popular Bollywood movie, so that’s usually what the judges like to see, old school songs from Bollywood movies because a lot of people get hype to it and really like them,” Kommireddi said.

NSU Maasti’s dances are com-plex, with each dance having a specific story crafted around it. During Kommireddi’s freshman year, NSU Maasti performed a dance based around the movie “Night at the Museum,” where Kommireddi played the villain.

Currently, NSU Maasti is working on a dance based around the popular Indian film, “Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.”

Asha Bhatia, senior biology major, finds that practicing new dances can help strengthen relationships within the team.

“I love dancing, but I also love how it brings the team together and you get to know people you wouldn’t normally meet because of age difference,” said Bhatia.

Bhatia said that a great way to support NSU Maasti is to watch videos of their competitions through the NSU Maasti Dance Team YouTube channel. Students can also send messages for information about dance competitions, tryouts and work-shops.