HOPKINTON, MA— SwaRaag announced the winners of its annual singing and dance competitions 2018 which were held last month after several rounds of auditions in various categories.
“It was yet another year of sold out crowd, where the audience came with high expectations…engaged in the performances and left fully satisfied with many singing and chanting. It was the best SwaRaag ever,” said SwaRaag Founder and President Swathi Subramanian. “The new theme at SwaRaag was just that ‘having a theme’, whether it was a group dance, solo or duo every artist was rich in powerful themes from ‘Malala-Women’s empowerment’ and ‘Festive Celebrations’ to the ‘Meaning of Life’, with 11 group dance choreographers bringing in full-scale make-up, elaborate hair pieces and back drops to suit their theme.”
Duo Dance categories in Junior and Senior were tough to judge as each team brought a winning performance, SwaRaag said in a statement.
“Solo and spot were entertaining with even a dad entering the Spot choreography space for the first time. Mr. Anoop Panthaloor may not have made it to the final round of Spot… but he sure wowed the audience with his Govinda moves and paved the way for future dads to participate,” the statement said. “Many boys confidently took to the stage this year and almost all of them tilted the wins in their favor. Singers took liberty at presenting in regional mixes which brought about a good change in pace.”
With nostalgic songs like Dil Hi Chota Sa, Cheez Badi Hai Mast, Kali Kali Aakhen, to today’s sensations Tum Hi ho, Aye Dil Hai Mushkil, Christy Mathew, director of Core Music Tutoring at Berklee School of Music, weaved through the times and moods with Bollywood hits, beckoning the audience to provide the vocals… and they did not hold back but sang each song with great enthusiasm.
Harini Iyer, SwaRaag song judge and member of the Berklee Indian Ensemble, took to the mike singing impromptu Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep’ and the sensuous ‘Vaseegara’.
“This was a very special moment at SwaRaag” said. Ms. Subramanian. “An evening we shall remember long … for in the end our dear Conductor/composer/pianist Christy Mathew had us drifting into his magical keys of blissful nostalgic songs …making every audience member dad/mom/child come alive singing … some even dancing. They wanted many more. It was too beautiful a moment and for that we sincerely thank Christy Mathew.”
Choreographers of the program included Devika Dhawan, Sanjana Pulaparthi, Jai Kishan, Ekta Jain, Sheethal Dwaraka, Shaila Verma, Shreya Vijay, Puja Harkut, Sunita Ramnani, Vrinda Chandar and Serena Behera who brought their creativity to the SwaRaag stage. eClinicalWorks helpws with the trophies.
Volunteers included Anandini Sekhar, Rekha Palriwala, Mahesh Palriwala, Rens Methratta, Swetha Subramanian, Asha Manish, Shobha Shastry, Hiral Parikh, Christy Mathew, Kalaimangai Anbalagan, Ramesh Madhav Rao, Jai Kishan, Aariana Subramanain Dabade, Meena Subramanian, Vaibhav Dabade and Swathi Subramanian.
Presiding over the SwaRaag Panel were honorable Judges:
Final Dance Judges:
Meena Subramanyam | Kalaimangai Anbalagan | Asha Nadipuram
Final Song Judges:
Shyam Vai | Uma Shankar | Harini Iyer
Audition Dance Judges:
Anandini Sekhar | Swathi Subramanian
Audition Song Judges:
Sudha Lakshmi Rao | Hiral Parikh | Nikhil Pendharkar
SWARAAG 2018 WINNERS
GROUP DANCE SENIOR Winning Teams
1st Place: Jumanji | Choreographer – DEVIKA DHAWAN | DFD Academy
Group Members: Aanya Parmar | Amy Koleth | Anika Shroff | Arya Kurian | Dhwanee Patel | Divya Sambathkumar | Isha Mehta | Manavi Vajhallya | Meghana Edpuganti | Neha Chandra | Prajusha Reddy | Pritha Yalakkishettar | Rayna Sharma | Roma Mistry | Ryana Riaz | Shravya Sathi | Shreya Godhani | Shreya Madhu | Shreya Patel | Shruthi Puranik | Shruti Gajjar | Sneha Shetty | Suhani Holla
2nd Place: Meaning of Life | Choreographer – SANJANA PULAPARTHI
Group Members: Sanjana Pulaparthi | Laasya Vemparala | Vyshnavi Vedala | Vaishnavi Desai | Prinika Kondoju | Gayatri Ankalu | Anisha Macharla | Sreya Sankar | Akshita Vaidyanathan
3rd Place: Tale of Two Sisters | Choreographer – JAIKISHAN | Jai Ho Dance School
Group Members: Rhea Anand | Suhani Patni | Aariana Subramanian Dabade | Siya Arde | Diya Reddi Pidatala | Siya Shah | Sareena Kansra | Reeya Kansra | Sriya Reddi Pidatala | Alopa Waje
GROUP DANCE JUNIOR Winning Teams
1st Place: Festive Dhamaka | Choreographer – SANJANA PULAPARTHI
Group Members: Prisha Adduri | Mahika Macharla | Pranathi Kondoju | Sudiksha Vedala | Haasini Vemparala | Rewa Vemparala | Sri Hamsika Tummala | Pooja Parisa | Akshaya Kolluri
2nd Place: Nashua Sitaras | Choreographer – SHEETHAL DWARAKA
Group Members: Avani Shettigar | Meenakshi Dwaraka | Bhavya Aeron | Tanvi Nawale | Mithra Senthilraja | Zoha Noufal | Nitya Punnoose | Zia Saiyed | Thara Mary Paul
3rd Place: Hocus Pocus | Choreographer – DEVIKA DHAWAN | DFD Academy
Group Members: Reya Ghelani | Sana Godhani | Manasvini Panguluri | Irene Ghosh | Ushasvini Panguluri | Arushi Biswas | Rebecca Koleth | Miley Arora | Shreya Soni | Apoorva Hegde | Vismaya Ashok | Riya Patel | Anika Rao | Anulekha Sahu
GROUP DANCE ‘DAZZLING MOMS’ Winning Teams
1st Place: Marriage with a Twist | Choreographer – EKTA JAIN | Ekta Dance Academy
Group Members: Ekta Jain | Swati Ladiwal | Neelima Muddada | Disha Bheda | Manisha Makwana | Mukta Munjal | Manisha Kumar | Geetanjali Virmani | Bhumika Seth | Rohini Swayambhatla | Radhika Chintapalli | Sarita Das | Shilpa Hande | Karuna Gurbaxani | Vinita Sharma | Ananya Gunti | Avnika Gunti | Pradeep Singh
2nd Place: Malala | Choreographer – PUJA HARKUT | Jab We Dance Team
Group Members: Puja Harkut | Neha Kaushal | Anagha S Phanse | Suchitra Shinde | Sirisha | Snehalata Kadam | Nidhi Bhatter | Prisha Rathi
3rd Place: Luca Chup | Choreographer – SHAILA VERMA | Shaila Verma School of Dance
Group Members: Pratyusha Myneni | Resmi Nair | Neetu Gupta | Bindu Balaji | Shraddha Patel | Debbie Goswami | Sujata Sharma | Kalyani Kanuri | Lakshmi Jemolla | Surabhi Saxena | Deepa Chaparala | Divya Chadhury | Rasmi Kutty | Jayshree | Soumya Dharmateja | Madhuri Marate | Swetha Meka | Srividya R
SOLO DANCE SENIORS
1st Place: Shrinivass AB
2nd Place: Aashi Kulkarni
SOLO DANCE JUNIORS
1st Place: Isha Mehta
2nd Place: Navein Sribalaharan
DUO DANCE SENIORS
1st Place: Udaya Banu Nagarajan & Nivetha Ravichandran
2nd Place: Nagaraju C & Sowmia K
DUO DANCE JUNIORS
1st Place: Ashwin Nair & Samarth Basanth
2nd Place: Tarika Sridhar & Shivani Shah
SPOT CHOREOGRAPHY
Winner: Sowmia K
SOLO SONG Age 9 – 15
1st Place: Olivia Joseph
2nd Place: Harshini Pathivada
SOLO SONG Age 16 – 36
1st Place: Juhi Lalwani
2nd Place: Shivani Singh
SOLO SONG Age 36 & Up
1st Place: Subrajit Basu
2nd Place: Anil Rijhsinghani.