Pitt Nrityamala - My new home

After completing my Arangetram with Smt. Nandini Mandal (Nandini mashi, as I call her) after my freshmen year at Pitt, I was on the look out for a way to keep up dancing on campus. As most of you know, I cannot live with out dance. But with pharmacy classes, activities, and a job making it very difficult to travel to Mt. Lebanon for dance class every week, I had no other option.

I have been very fortunate and lucky to find Pitt Nrityamala. It is the premier collegiate Indian classical dance team at Pitt and is the only one of it's kind in the Pittsburgh area. The team also consistently performs at cultural shows on campus. This year, we have 9 very talented girls, from Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi backgrounds. Everyone has completed their Arangetram. We pick our own music and choreograph together. I could not have asked for a better place or group of people to continue my dancing with. Nrityamala serves as a great venue for creativity with a very talented group. It's a whole new level of dancing, and I am enjoying every minute of it!

This past November, we were thrilled to perform off campus for the first time at Johns Hopkins University for the classical exhibition show, Nritya Mala 2010. We, then, competed at Laasya 2011 hosted by the University of Maryland on February 26th, where we won 1st place.

Laasya is the only collegiate Indian classical dance competition on the East Coast, and eight teams were selected to perform following review of their audition video. Traditionally, the winning team hosts the competition the following year, and Pitt Nrityamala will be hosting Laasya 2012 in Pittsburgh!

Being on the team for 2 years, I proudly have watched Nrityamala grow into a widely recognized collegiate dance team. I am so thankful to have found a venue for expanding my dancing and to have found a group of dancers that have become my new dance family.

Our next performance will be at Ugadi 2011 at the SV Temple on April 9th.

I also invite the Pittsburgh community to be on the lookout for Laasya 2012 promotional events and sponsor requests...it will be a Classical competition to remember.