Irene Arora (second from the left) dancing in the Bhangra performance. Earlier in the Cultural Festival, she danced with the Bollywood group.
Parents often put their children in classes that the children just don’t want to take like piano, dance and karate. Usually, that’s not what the child wants but it keeps them occupied. But every now and then, they’ll enjoy going to piano lessons or getting ready for karate. Or, in this case, learning new dance moves.
“Originally my mom put me in dance classes when I was six and it just kind of continued on from there,” Irene Arora, sophomore, explained. “I mean, I love dancing.”
Kuchipudi, Irene’s style of dancing, is “this classical South Asian dancing. I’ve been doing that since [I was] six. Other than that, I have been doing various types [of dancing], but that’s been my main thing.”
Outside of school, she practices three times a week. Inside, she and a group of girls called MESA enter the Cultural Festival with two different styles of dancing: Bollywood and Bhangra. Irene is part of both groups, despite being only a sophomore.
Irene and MESA, for Cultural Festival, start preparing at the beginning of the year. During few months before their performances, the group chooses songs and choreographs their moves. They try to have practices on Wednesdays and a few times on the weekends. “Over a period of two months, we have various practices and we make up the moves as we go along. Once the moves are finalized, then everyone picks up on it because we basically do it over and over again.”
Irene isn’t limited to group dancing. For family weddings and parties, as well as competitions, she often dances solo. Though she doesn’t get as nervous as she used to, Irene still needs some type of support and motivation.
“I have a huge family and they try to motivate me to dance. Even if I screw up, which I do tend to do sometimes, they pretend that it’s no big deal,” she said.
Like most high school students, Irene relies heavily on her friends, as well as her family.
“I remember last year, it was my freshman year and so I was super nervous about how my friends would see me after that—I was nervous about what my friends would say,” Irene recalled, talking about her first appearance in the Cultural Festival. “My friends were congratulating me and telling me how good I was. They really helped me gain my confidence.”
by Dorothy Yen
