CFA’s vision is of a vibrant space to experience the arts and nurture creative minds and inquiring spirits. To achieve this, we support groups that develop and stage productions on campus and beyond, we curate and present exhibitions and run programmes at NUS Museum, and we coordinate various platforms for artists to perform. The longest running of these is ExxonMobil Campus Concerts, which exists specifically to support new and experimental works.

Bollywood dance group NUS Naach have appeared numerous times on the EMCC schedule, and as a prolific participant in the platform, we spoke with them about their 2019 production and what being a part of EMCC means for them.

Having been featured in several seasons, what does being a part of EMCC do for Naach?

NUS Naach has always thrived on opportunities to perform and tell stories. Before we formed in 2016, we were part of NUS Indian Dance and we performed our annual productions under the patronage of EMCC and CFA. As an independent group, our annual EMCC shows are now the highlight of the Naach calendar and they are the reason we train all year round.

Thanks to EMCC and the tremendous guidance and support that come with being a part of it, we think and operate beyond just a student group. We have systems and planning in place to think about sustainability as a group such as how to generate more audience engagement, how to assess our impact on the student community at NUS and how to budget and meet funding requirements.

Feedback from the CFA team has also helped develop our group since the beginning and we’ve used it to work on stronger proposals each year. EMCC has pushed us to come up with engaging and experimental themes to explore through our dance which keeps us fresh as a dance group.

Raabta was the 7th time we’ve performed at EMCC and we would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude for this long association and patronage.

As an arts group an NUS, how do you fit performing and rehearsing around your studies?

Truth be told, rehearsing and performing has been always been a sweet escape from studies. During crunch time, when the show is around the corner, it is undoubtedly challenging to manage both academic schedules and rehearsal commitments simultaneously, but that is when it becomes absolutely critical to practice discipline, and manage our time carefully.

Taking time out to catch up with study on days when there are no rehearsals, and planning ahead of deadlines is one of the ways through which we fit performing and rehearsing around our studies. Moreover, being aware of how and when to set priorities, as well as goal-setting on a regular basis is key in doing well in both aspects.

The Naach culture is very teamwork-oriented, and as a member of a dance family that is eternally supportive, performing and rehearsing around studying is made much easier. Essential traits such as teamwork, priority-setting, self-discipline and multi-tasking are important skills that Naach inculcates in its dancers through its performance regimes and these are carried forward in their personal lives and future careers.

Being part of an arts group at NUS is truly rewarding. It enhances our overall educational experience by making it far more holistic and interdisciplinary than it would have been without it.

How was Raabta different from past Naach productions?

Raabta for NUS Naach is a very special show. For the previous two years with Alfaaz (2017) and Dastak (2018), we told stories through dance of the present and future by discussing topics like social media, hashtags, technology and the invasion of privacy. This year, we told a story of the past and our connection to it.

The theme for this year was “Everything Old is New Again” and this is our homage to our past and how it has enabled us to be what we are today. We tapped on to the nostalgia of our audience to tell very relatable stories while still pushing ourselves as a modern Indian dance group.

Our Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer, Akash Abhishek, always focuses on giving the audience a different experience each time they come to one of Naach’s shows. In addition, we had large number of new dancers in our 2019 show, so the face of Naach is ever evolving. This year, we also have our first alumni choreographer doing her maiden piece. This brings a new and unique perspective to the show and to Naach by extension.

What is it like to perform at the University Cultural Centre?

Performing at the University Cultural Centre (UCC) gives us the legitimacy that every dance group craves. The state-of-the-art venue, lights and ambience are ideal for dancers to express themselves and for choreographers to mount their vision.

Six of our seven annual shows have been staged at the UCC theatre, and each time we’ve performed here we’ve received excellent feedback from our audience. We once had the show in an open courtyard and the overwhelming response from the audience was they missed the grandeur and the experience that the UCC theatre adds to each show. Every year we get capacity crowds for our shows, and we couldn’t think of a better venue to accommodate our audience and tell our stories.

As the popularity and demand for our shows increase, we hope to one day have an opportunity to perform in UCC Hall with capacity crowd!