In her early years at Hunter, Taniya Bhambra, a senior majoring in Human Biology, found a familiar community within Hunter’s South Asian Culture Club, or SACC. The club frequently held events and forged close friendships amongst members with similar cultural backgrounds. But one vital component of South Asian culture was lacking from SACC’s events and activities – dance.
Hoping to fill the gap, Bhambra recruited two fellow SACC members, Salina Qadri and Aisha Patel, to found Hunter College Shikari, a South Asian fusion dance team. Since its founding in the fall of 2022, the club has gone from performing at one or two South Asian cultural events per semester to almost 10 this spring, with the help of their “sister club,” SACC.
“SACC let us do our first ever performance at one of their events,” said Qadri, a junior Psychology major and Shikari’s vice president. “It started off there and we just got new DMs coming to us and we just kept growing as we kept performing.”
Shikari’s diversity and inclusion of dance styles, including Bhangra, Bharatanatyam, Bollywood Style, Indian Classical, Giddha, Kathak, and even hip-hop, has allowed their reach to expand beyond a typical culture club’s scope. The team incorporates styles from the 10 members’ various countries and regions including Punjab, Kerala, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.
“You wouldn’t think that we’d be able to do Bharatanatyam, hip-hop, and Bhangra all together in one dance,” said Bhambra. “But it’s the collaboration of all the people who have different cultural backgrounds coming together and just making a beautiful piece.”
Each member brings a different level of experience and specialty dance style to the table. With some members dancing since their early childhood and others beginning as recently as high school, the team members frequently collaborate to choreograph and be as representative of different South Asian communities as possible.
“We’re working together as a team. In the beginning, some of us are struggling and it might be a completely new style of dance,” said Nicole Varghese, a junior majoring in Economics and Shikari member since last fall. “And then at the end it all comes together and it’s really rewarding to see that.”
Typically, the team meets for practice three times a week for two-hours. Bhambra and the board members handle the logistics of the club – organizing and booking events, creating mixtapes, choreographing routines, coordinating costumes and outfits, as well as teaching the choreography to the rest of the team.
“The best reward is once you finish that dance and you see everyone cheering,” said Bhambra. “And that everyone’s happy and everyone on the team has the biggest smile because all the hard work paid off.”
Shikari has performed for many CUNY clubs and across the city, including Hunter’s Bengali Student Association, Queens College’s South Asian Student Association, Baruch’s Indian Student Association, John Jay’s Pakistani Student Association, and Fordham University South Asian Entity.
“They bring such a vibrant and bright energy that gets everyone so hyped up, and just ready to dance, ready to party,” said Hafsa Haque, a senior and treasurer of SACC. “You can always find me on the sidelines hyping them up.”
With its diversity, Shikari is malleable enough to cater to each of gig, focusing on a specific style depending on the event’s purpose. Whether it’s a Mock Shaadi, a Desi formal, or a holiday celebration, Shikari’s performances help set the tone for the event and represent the host’s occasion.
“Everybody thinks Indian culture is only Bollywood, but it’s really not,” said Neha Jacob, a sophomore and an original member of Shikari and the club’s current treasurer. “There’s so many other dances that make up the Indian/South Asian culture, and because our team is more open to all the other cultural dances, we kind of show snippets of everything to get people excited about our culture.”
As the founding board members’ years at Hunter come to a close, newer members hope that the club will continue to gain popularity and expand its reach across more universities in New York.
Shikari’s next performance will be at SACC’s Hunter Formal, their finale event for the semester, on May 3 at Hunter’s Brookdale campus.
