March 25, 2005

Evergreen Girls win first prize in YouthUtsav 2005

Feb. 19 proved a memorable day in the lives of five 8-year-old Evergreen girls. Nivi Ahlawat, Anushka Deshmukh, Apurva Gorti, Ranju Subramani and Richa Wadekar won first prize in the sub-junior group dance category, for ages 5 – 8, at YouthUtsav 2005, a Bay Area-wide dance competition.

Pictured above are the first prize performers in the sub-junior group dance category at the February YouthUtsav contest. From the left are Nivi Ahlawat, Ranju Subramani, choreographer Rashi Khare, Richa Wadekar, Anushka Deshmukh and Apurva Gorti.

More than 300 participants entered this dance contest, divided into sub-junior, junior and senior categories. They were also classified as group or solo dances and as traditional, folk and free style dances.

The win was a culmination of months of practicing a free-style dance, more commonly known as “Bollywood dancing.” The girls started learning Bollywood dancing as a pastime in 2003 when they met every Friday evening to unwind.
Seeing their passion and interest, their moms encouraged them to participate in competitions.

On Feb. 19, dressed in black pants, black gloves, shimmering pink blouses and matching pink hats, the girls eagerly performed to a packed auditorium at the Anthony Soho Theatre in San Jose—showing just a trace of jitters for their first performance.

Apurva, Ranju and Richa attend third grade at Tom Matsumoto Elementary School.

Anushka and Nivi are second graders at J. F. Smith Elementary and Stratford Elementary respectively.

Last year, the girls won the third price in the Evergreen Balvihar dance competition, a small local gathering. With a first prize win in a Bay Area wide dance competition, the girls are confident as they ponder their success.

“We won because we worked hard and performed well on stage,” said Nivi. “Yes, and also because we had a good teacher, great steps and a grand ending,” adds Anushka.

Richa recalls no performance jitters, saying she had, “none at all, the dance was even more enjoyable when I realized I was performing to such a large audience.”

Where do you go from here? “We should do a road trip,” quips Ranju. “Next step is Hollywood,” beams Apurva.
All five girls pursue other interests, including skiing, soccer, swimming, piano, chess, Indian classical music and gymnastics. So it remains to be seen what is in store for these little ones and what more accolades they will achieve in future. For now they are basking in their 15 minutes of fame.

“Utsav” means festival in Sanskrit. YouthUtsav was launched in 2003 by Sam Rao and by volunteers from the Asian-Indian community looking for a well-organized, meaningful cultural heritage-oriented program, where community and youth come first.