Successful Test Cricket debut for University’s Indian Dance Society
The University of Southampton’s Indian Dance Society made its Test Cricket debut during the recent match between England and India at the city’s Ageas Bowl.
The group of eight dancers performed before play and during intervals on Thursday and Saturday of the Test, with hundreds of cricket fans stopping to watch and take part in workshops featuring Bhangra and Bollywood styles of dance. The group was joined on Saturday by Dhol player Jason Sahota and enjoyed a surprise visit on stage by former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan and former England bowler Phil Tufnell, accompanied by their colleagues from the BBC’s Test Match Special who featured their performance on-air.
The student were also invited to meet Lord Patel who received an Honorary Doctorate in Science from the University in July for his outstanding contribution to mental health, alcohol and drug use and identifying the health and social care needs of a broad range of vulnerable people and communities. Lord Patel is also a member of the ECB Management Board.
The students, who have been performing for about 18 months, were so excited to be involved in the third Test match ever to be staged at the Ageas Bowl.
“It was an amazing experience,” said Business Management student Ashna Belani. “It was so much fun. I’m such a huge cricket fan so to be performing at a Test match when India was playing was so amazing.”
Audiology student, Punya Kapoor, described the experience as “so surreal because we never thought we’d be performing at an event like this, especially being university students. If we could teach either the Indian Cricket Team or the England Cricket Team some Bollywood moves, that would be our lives made.”
“It’s so exciting,” Punya continued. “We just hope that the audience takes a bit of our culture away and hopefully we can inspire people to join some Bollywood dance classes near them as well!”
Deniesha Dhokia, who is studying Mathematical Sciences, has been a dancer since she was very young. “It’s a big part of my life, not just a hobby; it’s something I love and with the team like this it makes it so much better. If you watch all of us, we’re genuinely smiling because we love what we do and we’re not just doing it to entertain people - we just love performing.
“We’ve done performances before but this on such a big scale and the fact that India were playing makes it more special for us,” Deniesha concluded.
Bhupinder Siran, Events Coordinator of the University’s Shine BAME Staff Network, said “This was an important opportunity for our students to showcase their talents and Indian culture in front of a very receptive and welcoming audience at The Ageas Bowl. The University of Southampton has, and celebrates, a richly diverse and inclusive community and we hope that our students’ performances at the Test match go a long way to sharing that diversity with a much larger audience, not just in Southampton but in India and around the world.”
