The dancers snapped their arms in sync as the beat dropped, smoothly switching between dance formations. They moved from hip-hop to bhangra to South Indian dance with ease, confidence and flair, mixing Western dance with various Indian and Bollywood styles.
The team performs with passion, carrying on a 15-year legacy that began with Nida Nizami, a former OU student. In 2007, OU freshman Nizami wanted to start a dance organization at OU since she always watched university Bollywood-fusion dance team performances on YouTube.
Nizami had danced her whole life and she wanted to continue at OU. She felt dance would help her showcase the culture of OU’s South Asian population and give past dancers the platform to continue their cultural art into college. Nizami reached out to junior Divya Byragani, who had previously attended Virginia Tech and had prior experience with the university’s dance team.
“It was really haphazard, honestly,” Nizami said. “We went in pretty blindly.”
Starting a dance team from scratch, Nizami and Byragani ran into difficulties. Social media did exist at the time, but there weren’t many online resources to contact or see what other organizations were doing. They built their team, Soniyes, from their own knowledge and trial and error.
Soniyes went in and out of hiatus for the next couple of years until 2021, when Sianna Raja revived the dance team during her junior year at OU. Raja, like Nizami, grew up dancing and participated in her dance team at Alma High School in Alma, Arkansas.
One of the reasons Raja chose OU was because of the Bollywood-fusion dance group. She hoped to join Soniyes at the beginning of her freshman year, but the team was never put together because of a lack of interest from students coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic.
As Raja entered her junior year, students became more interested in the team. With the number of freshman girls interested, she could revive Soniyes.
Raja decided to try out for team captain. She and two other girls sent audition tapes to the former dance captain, Purvi Patel, and Raja was selected. She worked closely with Patel in rebuilding the team.
“It was a big learning curve,” Raja said. “I didn’t have a lot of information on how things were supposed to go, so it was kind of like (figuring) it out as I go … to the best of my abilities.”
Raja used social media and connections through OU’s South Asian Student Association to get the word out. Raja created a one-minute routine and a judging rubric and held auditions in the Sarkeys Fitness Center.
“The biggest thing when I was judging the trials was (determining): How coachable are they, and do I think that I can work with them and get them to be very in-sync and (coordinated) with each other?” Raja said.
She emphasized the hard work and effort of the whole team in restarting Soniyes. Raja would often consult other team members for suggestions and ideas and make decisions as a collective group.
“I don’t want to say I’m the reason it’s back, because I think everyone (was involved),” Raja said. “It was like a ticking time bomb just waiting for enough people to want to do it.”
Fifteen years after its original formation, the 2022-23 Soniyes executive team succeeded in making the group an official OU-affiliated organization with the help of their faculty adviser, A.K. Fazlur Rahman, a chemistry professor.
For Nizami, seeing Soniyes finally become an OU-affiliated organization, an aspiration she had for the team after graduating, means a lot.
Soniyes rehearse on Oct. 18.
“Dance is liberation,” Nizami said. “It’s such a freeing thing, especially during the grind (of) college. … (Soniyes was) an amazing creative outlet for me. … It’s a special feeling for sure to see the things you created grow into what you hoped for it.”
Now that Soniyes is an official organization, Raja said it can better inform the OU community about South Asian culture.
“It’s so much easier when you’re official to get the news out there … about what we are and what we do,” Raja said. “Our world is very divided nowadays, and I think that’s because people are ignorant of what’s going on. Sometimes people just don’t know more about different cultures … and it’s our job to teach them. … You have to have that initiative and drive to share that with other people.”
Senior captain Ciara Patel hopes OU will continue to support and uplift culturally diverse organizations like Soniyes. She emphasized the struggles of getting funding and public interest as a South Asian dance team in comparison to the larger, noncultural dance teams on campus.
She feels that OU’s official recognition of the team is a big step toward bringing awareness to and highlighting diversity on OU’s campus. She said the dance team is on a path to becoming more developed and established.
Soniyes’ status as an official organization has also helped some members find community and camaraderie in the team.
“The importance of groups like Soniyes is to create a safe community where people can feel welcome,” said Nitya Arekatla, a former Soniyes dancer and current marketing manager.
Arekatla described growing up in Lawton, Oklahoma, and not having access to South Asian dance classes near her. She said the closest she got to a real dance class was when her mother encouraged her to learn choreography from YouTube videos.
Soniyes was the first time Arekatla had the opportunity to perform Indian dance organizationally. For Arekatla, dance was an accessible way to connect with her Indian heritage.
“In America, (it’s hard) to get the food that you’re used to, the cultural things that you do, (compared to when) you’re back home,” Arekatla said. “I think dance is just an easy way to connect with your culture and others … (Soniyes) is like a family.”
For junior captain Simi Kurella, dance has been a means of self-expression. Kurella learned about Indian classical dance since she was a child, and the dance team has allowed her to continue this passion into college.
Kurella believes Soniyes provides a way for dancers to demonstrate their American and Desi backgrounds while staying in touch with their culture. One of her main goals as junior captain this year is to create a close and friendly environment for the entire team.
First-year dancer Chandini Kanderi has danced bharatnatyam, a form of Indian classical dance, since she was 4 years old. Throughout her time as a dancer, she has learned Bollywood, bharatnatyam, bhangra and hip-hop.
Dance has always been something Kanderi hoped to pursue in college, and she was happy to learn that the team had been restarted last year. She learned of Soniyes from childhood friend Pragathi Gowda, a junior captain of Soniyes.
Soniyes has been both a creative outlet as well as a welcoming and friendly community for Kanderi in her first year of college. She said she feels Soniyes has been a great way for her to meet others with similar interests as her.
Soniyes rehearse on Oct. 18.
“I really love the other girls,” said Kanderi. “We’ve already gotten close, and I look forward to Sunday (dance practice) because it’s just so fun to be together.”
The Soniyes executive team is very passionate about their leadership roles and are working to create a strong dance team that can have a lasting legacy, Patel said.
“I really hope there is not another hiatus,” Raja said. “Even if it seems there are not enough girls to compete, I hope there’s still an organization on campus that’s still performing. … I don’t ever want (Soniyes) to disappear.”
Kurella joined last year and is now serving as a junior captain of Soniyes. She loved the team environment during her first year and wanted to take on a larger leadership role. She works together with Gowda and senior captain Ciara Patel to choreograph, create mixes, raise funds and set formations.
“Even though it’s a time-consuming position that takes a high level of commitment, I love being a captain,” Kurella said.
While the dance team did perform at competitions in Dallas, Soniyes’ performances during Nizami and Byragani’s time were centered around OU’s India Nite, a cultural event where OU students enjoyed dance, music and Indian cuisine. Nizami said at the event she saw some people dance with their friends but wanted her own team to be a professional dance group.
Now, Soniyes aims to compete on a larger scale among other dance teams all over the nation.
Desi Dance Network is a national organization aimed at preserving South Asian artistic traditions and combating cultural erasure. The organization co-hosts and sponsors various events across the nation. Soniyes hopes to compete at the network’s national fusion dance circuit in the spring.
“It’s a big goal of ours to compete this year,” Kurella said. “I’m quite confident we can achieve this goal, but it’ll take a lot of hard work and dedication, not only from the captains but also from the entire team.”
Soniyes holds practices every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday night, and the team is currently preparing to film their audition tape to submit to the network. The dancers have been practicing a routine including hip-hop, bhangra, Bollywood, bharatnatyam and South Indian-style dance.
Soniyes is also working to reach wider audiences and usher in a generation of more diversified dancers on OU’s campus. Patel’s primary goal this year as senior captain is to make Soniyes more inclusive.
“Soniyes is open to anybody,” Patel said. “I can’t emphasize that enough. You don’t have to be Indian. You don’t have to be a girl. You don’t have to be an undergraduate. … Anybody is welcome to join, even if you don’t have dance experience. You just have to be willing to learn.”
