Laasya 2023 Director
In Februrary 2023, I directed a national collegiate classical dance competition in the Origins circuit. I worked with my dance team, Natya UW, to organize this event, which culminated in an 8 team competition that premiered in a sold out show. This was an amazing, once in a lifetime experience, that I'm so grateful to have had. Read my reflection below!
I have been a part of Natya UW for 3 years, and in that time, I’ve seen the impact of its mission of making Indian classical dance accessible. I hear from Natya’s audiences how surprising yet cool it is to see ancient Indian culture represented at UW, and I feel proud of that impact. Hosting Laasya will allow Natya to bring Indian classical dance beyond the UW campus and to the greater Seattle community, showing people how passionate young people are about the art form. Not to mention, the 110 dancers that we’ll be hosting will learn about the Seattle dance scene, see how strong the support for it is, and hopefully be motivated to engage in it in the future, strengthening the scene overall.
I chose this opportunity because I want to inspire dancers across the nation and Seattle community. When I heard Natya was hosting Laasya, I knew I wanted to help lead it because I knew it would be a major event for the Seattle classical scene, as representation at the collegiate level is pretty rare. I also chose this project because it’s a unique challenge. This is the most complicated project I’ve ever taken on, with lots of logistics and resources going into it. It’s intimidating, but I know I’ll come out as a better project manager. In addition, I am working with my friends and have to make sure they get work done. Figuring out how to be fair yet firm is difficult, but this is the perfect opportunity to develop that skill.
As for skills, I am in the entrepreneurship minor, which has taught me about how to create your vision no matter what. This has proven especially useful because Natya has very limited resources, and I’ve had to get creative to get us enough resources to host this competition. In a broader sense, I want my education to be holistic. I am a CS major, but I want enough soft skills to eventually go into leadership positions. This activity will help me develop those soft skills (logistics, project management, etc.) and I’ll carry those for the rest of my career.