ASTORIA — Kanika Singh admitted that she was a little nervous when she entered St. John’s Preparatory School in Astoria as a freshman last year. As an Indian American, she was aware that very few students shared her nationality.
“Maybe I might not fit in,” Kanika recalled thinking.
However, to her surprise and delight, the school’s Bollywood Dance team allowed her to fit right in. “I was so excited because it’s finally a chance for me to share my culture and also find a sense of community,” she explained.
Now a sophomore, Kanika said she loves the dance team, especially helping other students with hand gestures and foot placements that are foreign to them but familiar to her. She said she also enjoys the music’s upbeat energy.
Among the five boroughs, Queens has the highest concentration of Indian residents, representing 57.1% of the total Indian population, according to the Asian American Federation.
Debra Befumo, who has been teaching dance at St. John’s Prep for 40 years, said the Bollywood Dance Team is in line with the school’s mission to offer extracurricular activities that appeal to its diverse student body.
“We have a very diverse student body, and we like to offer them as many choices as we can when it comes to clubs,” she said, noting that the school also has Irish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Polish clubs, among its choices.
The Bollywood Dance Team was founded in 2012 by two students who loved Bollywood’s vibrant, high-energy blend of traditional Indian folk dances and contemporary jazz and hip-hop moves, and wanted to share their passion with others.
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The team meets every Friday to learn such things as mudras (intricate hand gestures) and thumka (a classic Bollywood movement in which the dancer moves with one hand on the hip and the other on the head).
The dancers perform about three or four times a year — at venues such as St. John’s Prep’s annual spring showcase, Immaculate Conception Church, LIC Springs (a street fair in Long Island City), and at the Ninth Avenue Food Festival in Manhattan.
Guiding the team every step of the way is Antara Saha, an Indian American and a 2011 graduate of St. John’s Prep, who is trained in Indian dance disciplines like bharatanatyam (an ancient temple dance), kathak (a dance known for fast spins and intricate footwork), and kuchipudi (a blend of dance and drama).
Saha said she enjoys coming back to her old high school once a week as a Bollywood instructor. Being of South Asian heritage, she noted, “Bollywood was always a kind of overhanging presence” in her life.
Saha said her goal isn’t to produce the next Bollywood star. Instead, she seeks to boost dancers’ self-esteem.
“I wold definitely say the first thing is self-confidence, being very much comfortable in their skin and who they are as a person,” she explained. “If this gets you out of your shell a little bit, I think I’ve done the best thing in the world.”
That happened to Tseyang Lhamo, a senior who joined the team as a sophomore.
“I got better, and I got more confident, especially performing onstage,” she said.
In addition to learning dance moves, the Bollywood Dance Team gives students a chance to learn about Indian culture, said Ariana Yepez, a senior who has been a member for two years.
“I love it because we are dancing, so it’s like a physical activity combined with actual knowledge you can learn about the culture,” she said. “All of our dances have a certain type of meaning that is connected to the culture.”
For Kanika, the best thing about the team is the friendships she has formed. Through Bollywood, she said she has found “a sense of community, like-minded people of kids who like to dance and really enjoy Bollywood music.”
