Penn Dhamaka won the Desi Dance Network national circuit last weekend, marking the first time the University\u2019s all-male South Asian fusion dance team has secured the title.<\/p>\n
The April 18 victory capped a season of consistent first- and second-place titles for Dhamaka. The national circuit was hosted by DDN Inc.<\/a>, a platform founded in 2014 to support South Asian performing arts through competitions and conventions.<\/p>\n For Dhamaka members, the win represents a culmination of long-term planning amid a highly competitive national landscape.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s something we\u2019ve all dreamed about,\u201d College senior and Dhamaka co-captain Krishna Khawani told The Daily Pennsylvanian, describing the win as \u201cthe highest level of achievement that you can get in South Asian competitive dance.\u201d<\/p>\n The DDN circuit operates through a season-long structure. According to College sophomore Aditya Bala, teams first submit audition videos to individual competitions. Each competition typically selects around eight teams to advance, ranking each based on performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n Get the DP delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\n Dhamaka\u2019s set this year was built around a \u201cBill Nye the Science Guy\u201d theme, invoking the elements of the science education television show.<\/p>\n Bala said the concept had circulated among Dhamaka members since 2018 but had never been executed at scale, adding that alumni from multiple generations contributed to the final performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n He told the DP that the team intentionally pursued a lighter and more upbeat theme for this season\u2019s set, a shift from the \u201cvery dark\u201d concepts explored in past years.\u00a0<\/p>\n College senior Naeem Himani \u2014 Dhamaka\u2019s artistic director and co-captain \u2014 said that the team aimed to prioritize audience engagement and storytelling.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMaking the audience feel something was a huge objective,\u201d Himani said. \u201cClean choreographies matter, but I noticed entertainment for the audience had gone down, and a lot of people weren\u2018t enjoying what they were watching.\u201d<\/p>\n Engineering junior Gaurav Malhotra wrote to the DP that at the end of the performance, the dancers handed out globes with QR codes to the audience to raise funds \u2014 which he described as one of his most memorable moments.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSeeing the crowd stand up, cheer, and actually believe in what we were trying to do \u2026 that was beautiful,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt felt bigger than just a performance.\u201d<\/p>\n The performance incorporated multiple dance styles, including Bollywood, Bhangra, and hip-hop, alongside props, theatrical lighting, and interactive segments.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bala told the DP that the team worked to integrate both technical choreography and a narrative foundation, including representations of the water cycle and environmental change.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had students go to Amy Gutmann Hall and engineer and make light-up dandiyas using materials there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The team\u2019s musical composition also played a central role in shaping the performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to 2018 Perelman School of Medicine graduate Srihari Sritharan \u2014 who served as the set\u2019 DJ \u2014 the mix was designed to combine nostalgic \u201cthrowback songs\u201d with high-energy transitions, allowing audiences to \u201csing along to the songs they grew up with\u201d before shifting into more modern and hip-hop elements.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes to making an impact at the national competition level, attention to every detail, down to song choice and set construction, can make the winning difference,\u201d Sritharan wrote.<\/p>\n Preparation for the season required extensive time commitment, with practices intensifying in the weeks leading up to competitions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cGiven the fact that we\u2019re at Penn, every single guy on the team is doing a million other things,\u201d Khawani said, pointing to challenges in managing coursework, job recruiting, and other extracurriculars.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTo be competing at this highest level and be shooting to be the best comes with a lot of sacrifice,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite those demands, College and Wharton senior Krutin Devesh told the DP that the group prioritized communication and flexibility to accommodate other obligations.<\/p>\n \u201cThe balance came in terms of the support that the team gave one another,\u201d Devesh said. \u201cIt was really just a balancing act that was grounded in communication and how close we are as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n The members also described the team\u2019s culture as a defining factor in its success. Bala, Khawani, Devesh, and Himani all characterized Dhamaka as a \u201cbrotherhood,\u201d emphasizing the amount of time spent together in rehearsals and during travel for competitions.<\/p>\n The team also collaborated with Penn\u2019s Arts House Dance Company for its final performance. The partnership builds on a longstanding relationship between the two groups, including an annual joint piece known as \u201cArtsmaka,\u201d which has been performed for more than a decade.<\/p>\n For the national stage, Arts House Dance Company dancers contributed to segments of the performance, including hip-hop and contemporary pieces.<\/p>\n College and Wharton senior Sophia Jorgensen of Arts House Dance Company wrote to the DP that the collaboration reflects a shared commitment to growth across dance styles, with both groups regularly teaching each other choreography.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis team is unique,\u201d Jorgensen wrote. \u201cIt is palpable how their shared love for dance created something stronger than any team dynamic I have ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n For members of Dhamaka, the win carried significance for South Asian performing arts on campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not that common to see guys dancing or giving so much time towards dancing, especially in the South Asian community,\u201d Khawani said. \u201cWe want to show that it is possible to be successful in academics but also achieve so much in the arts. Things like that do matter.\u201d<\/p>\n Senior reporter Ananya Karthik covers central administration and can be reached at karthik@thedp.com<\/a>. At Penn, she studies communication and economics. Follow her on X @ananyaakarthik<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penn Dhamaka won the Desi Dance Network national circuit last weekend, marking the first time the University\u2019s all-male…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-174576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-philadelphia","9":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","10":"tag-philadelphia-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}