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Dancing to new tunes
Jhankaar, St Andrew’s inter-college dance competition, supports green cause through tree-planting drive.
The inter-college dance competition, Jhankaar witnessed more than just ‘bigger participation’ this year. The contest, which is in its seventh year now, grew bigger and better, turning out to be a huge dance festival spread over three days at St Andrew’s College. “This year, we wanted to do things differently. So, we included four categories in the competition instead of just two, and it brought in a lot of versatility,” says professor Jenny Benoy, BMS co-ordinator and incharge of Jhankaar 2011.
Dance teams from eight colleges across the city competed in four categories — Bollywood Beats, Tell-a-tale, Classical Jackson and Bring It On. “These days, Bollywood and hip-hop are the preferred categories for most dance contests. But to add a more innovative element, we included ‘Classical Jackson’ — a category under which teams had to perform a classical routine on Michael Jackson songs. The team from Wilson College performed exceptionally in this segment,” Benoy says.
Sathe College won the Overall Best Team prize at the festival since it had maintained a high standard of participation in each of the categories. With an array of performances in varied genres, the fest was a visual treat for the audiences. “We got to see some extremely talented teams on stage. Also, Majithia, which isn’t a well known college, surprised everyone by winning the Bollywood Beats category,” says Valentine Fernandes, TYBMS student at St Andrew’s, who also compered the event.
On the second day of the contest, a tree-plantation drive, led by the college principal, administrator and dean was also held in the college and around Bandra. “We wanted to support a good cause through this contest. And planting more trees seemed a good way of initiating it. For the drive, we obtained necessary permissions from the BMC,” informs Benoy, adding, “The mascot of the festival, Zumba the Tiger, also shows our support for tiger conservation.”
To make the fest an inclusive event, free passes were given to underprivileged students, who have been the beneficiaries of Teach For India — an organisation comprising of young college graduates who work to pay for their education.
