AYER, MA— SwaRaag 2017 Bollywood Music & Dance Competition showcased an incredible pool of singing and dance talents from across New England last month, with Bina Negandhi winning first place in two categories. (Photos by Sainath Varikuti.)
First place in group dance senior category went to Kabeera choreographed by Ekta Jain; first place in group dance junior: Tharki Chokro, choreographed by Bina Negandhi; first place in group dance in dazzling moms: Dance Spirit—Raas Leela, choreographed by Bina Negandhi.
First place solo dance seniors: Shalini Jayarama; first place solo dance juniors: Vismaya Ashok; first place duo dance seniors: Aneesha Mahapatra and Ashi Kulkarni; first place duo dance juniors: Siri Harish ad Shreya Harish; first place spot choreography: Ashwin Nair; first place solo song age 9-16: Lochan Karthikeyan; first place solo song age 17-32: Suman Kalyan Sarkar; and first place solo song age 36 and up: Vidhya Sukumaran.
“I was stunned to see the great pains parents of individual and group performances had taken to raise the level of the presentation,” said Swathi Subramanian, founder and president of SwaRaag Performing Arts, Inc. “Presentation, props, energy – all strived at. It must have been hours and weeks of planning and creative building. We are so proud to showcase each one of them at SwaRaag.”
Choreographers of the evening were Bina Negandhi, Devika Dhawan, Jai Kishan, Jasmine Shah, Shaila Verma, Ananya Venkatesan, Vaijayanthi Gopalakrishnan, Jyothi Setty, and Smriti Gupta. Healthcare software giant eClinicalWorks sponsored the trophies and supported the event this year.
Here is the complete list of all winners in all categories of SwaRaag 2017 Bollywood Music & Dance Competition:
GROUP DANCE SENIOR Winning Teams
1st Place: Kabeera | Choreographer – EKTA JAIN | Ekta Dance Academy
Group Members: Ekta Jain | Anshika Jain | Devishi Jain | Tanvi Gahlot | Namya Arora | Leisha Gupta | Monisha Pendeti | Karuna Gurbaxani | Vinita Sharma | Phalguni Akhegaonkar | Koyel Das | Neelima Muddada
2nd Place: Just Dance | Choreographer – JAIKISHAN | Jai Ho Dance School
Group Members: Joshika Selvaraj | Sriya Reddi Pidatala | Krapakshi Sharma | Meghana Nair | Esther Antony | Pooja Hingorany | Sreya Nimmagadda | Khanak Sharma | Sareena Kansra | Reeya Kansra | Kaavya Ramanathan | Alopa Waje | Tisha Marwah | Niara Marwah | Sanjana Basu
3rd Place: Baahubali Mix | Choreographer – JASMINE SHAH | Aangikam Dance Academy
Group Members: Ankita Bhatnagar | Ekta Shah | Isha Chug | Sakshi Dindore | Serena Desai | Ria Deshpande | Tanvi Manjrekar | Esha Patel
GROUP DANCE JUNIOR Winning Teams
1st Place: Tharki Chokro | Choreographer – BINA NEGANDHI | Dance Spirit
Group Members: Aryam Dave | Vatsal Botla | Devam Morparia | Amal Balachundar | Aditi Nagaraja | Vrinda Heda | Radhika Heda | Devangi Rathi | Radhika Verma | Yash Sankholkar | Rheeya Khatri | Reetika Bhagadia | Abhi Boyanapalli | Abhi Balaguruswamy | Farah Semy | Asha Banka | Hiya Singh
2nd Place Tie: Aladdin | Choreographer – DEVIKA DHAWAN | Devika Fusion Dance School
Group Members: Reya Ghelani | Ashrita Gandhari | Sana Godhani | Aadya Jain | Riya Patel | Monisha Kathika | Irene Ghosh | Suhani Holla | Shreya Patel | Khushi Jain | Pritha Yalakkishettar | Apoorva Hegde | Vismaya Ashok | Sakshi Nandan | Shreya Madhu
3rd Place: Baahubali | Choreographer – Jyothi Setty | Desi Rhythms
Group Members: Unnati Bhat | Sansriti Kumar | Kashvi Kumar | Avni Mishra | Tanvi Shistu | Nikita Mullangi | Anshika Shrivatsava | Medita Sinha | Shanvi Kumar
GROUP DANCE ‘DAZZLING MOMS n More’ Winning Teams__
1st Place: Dance Spirit – RaasLeela | Choreographer – BINA NEGANDHI | Dance Spirit
Group Members: Alpa Khatri | Poonam Maini | Priya Pathivada | Khushi Morparia | Medha Morparia | Ruby Boyanapalli | Sarah Semy | Rayhan Semy | Sravani Alaparti | Pranathi Srirangam |
Minal Vora | Sejal Kothari | Dhruti Ashar | Savitha Rajagopalan | Manisha Parwani |
Vaidehi Pathak | Sarika Shirude
2nd Place: Gajanana | Choreographer – SHAILA VERMA | Shaila Verma School of Dance
Group Members: Srividya Ramachandran | Resmi Nair | Kalyani Kanuri | Neetu Gupta | Suchitra Patil | Bindu Balaji | Shraddha Patel | Lakshmi Jemolla | Divya Rani | Neeraja Satish
3rd Place: Dancing Dads | Choreographer – SMRITI GUPTA | Meher Studio of Performaing Arts
Group Members: Anoop Bhaskaran | Jai Verma | Ragu Vamsi Bonagiri | Rohan Samant | Saravanan Kandaswamy | Shreedhar Kale | Sivaramanjaneyulu Somaroutu | Mithun Saravanan | Sumit Singhal | Siya Singhal
SOLO DANCE SENIORS
1st Place: Shalini Jayarama
2nd Place: Ruhi Patil
SOLO DANCE JUNIORS
1st Place: Vismaya Ashok
2nd Place: Shreya Soni
DUO DANCE SENIORS
1st Place: Aneesha Mahapatra & Aashi Kulkarni
2nd Place: Adhithi Venkatesan & Sruthi Ramesh
DUO DANCE JUNIORS
1st Place: Siri Harish & Shreya Harish
2nd Place: Shrishti Srinath & Lakshana Raghav
SPOT CHOREOGRAPHY
Winner: Ashwin Nair
SOLO SONG Age 9 – 16
1st Place: Lochan Karthikeyan
2nd Place: Sravya Tanikella
SOLO SONG Age 17 – 32
1st Place: Suman Kalyan Sarkar
2nd Place: Swetha Siva
SOLO SONG Age 36&Up
1st Place: Vidhya Sukumaran
2nd Place: Debarati Mukherjee Ganguly
Judges were:
Final Dance Judges: Arsh Mehrotra, Poornima Risbud , Sheethal Dwaraka .
Final Song Judges: Shyam Vai, Vandana Rao and Sarita Deshpande.
Audition Dance Judges: Kalaimangai Anbalagan, Sheetal Kelkar and Swathi Subramanian
Audition Song Judges: Preeti Nagar, Raghu Saranathan and Vaishnavi Kondapalli.
It is worth mentioning that Lochan Karthikeyan, who won the first place in solo song category in age 9-16 was riveting with a regional Tamil song whereas Sravya Tanikella engulfed the audience with her delivery of Lag Ja Gale. SwaRaag was a dynamic theatrical presentation by dancers and large teams with compelling themes from 10 choreographers. The event was held in Ayer, MA, o Nov. 18.
“Duo Dance categories in both Juniors and Seniors brought hard challenges to the judges making it difficult to mark the top two.Whereas, Solo and Spot Dances in both age divisions gripped the audience,” Subramanian said in a statement. “More talented young boys entered the SwaRaag stage this year bringing a nuance of attitude and style. Elaborate themes dominated the dances, where group dance teams spent weeks working on handmade props with dramatic scenery to bring to life a theatre effect.”
One team even had a full chariot pulled on stage carrying a prince and impactful they were.
Volunteers for the event were: Anandini Sekhar, Asha Manish, Shobha Shastry, Gopi Bala, Hiral Parikh, Christy Mathew, Shikha Bajpai, Sandhya Dasu, Sainath Varikuti, Meena Subramanian and Vaibhav Dabade.
