Festive Season is Back and SDA is here for it!

SDA is excited to get back to in -person cultural and community events this Fall. October 2nd was a hectic but fulfilling day for Team SDA and it’s brilliant students with our team shuttling between two milestone Jersey City Cultural events- the 7th Annual JC Families Diversity Festival and the 15th Annual LCCS Fall A Palooza.

SDA at Cultural Diversity Festival
Amidst brilliant dance companies various representing art forms from across the world, SDA was very proud to showcase India's diverse and eclectic dance forms at JC Families Harvest and Cultural Diversity Festival organized at Hamilton Park.

Our performance started with our tiny but energetic Bollywood dancers (Aarna Rohatgi, Neal Khavanekar, Virika Mamtora, Zeeva Bhayani, Zoya Shah) who brought in patriotic fervor with ‘Suno Gaur se Duniya Walon’ dressed in smart SDA tees and Camo pants. They received tremendous applause and set the tone for the rest of the medley. Their performance was followed by a graceful Bharatnatyam representation of 2 of our favorite tracks by Aaliya Shah and Urvi Mamtora. They started off with the soulful patriotic song Maa Tujhe Salaam which beautifully blended with the classical hit Ghar More Pardesiya. The girls were dressed in ethereal white and danced rhythmically with traditional ghungroos (bells) tied to their feet.

Next, taking the stage by storm were our favorite dancing duo Sara Khavanekar and Swanika Kadam, who did a Bhangara meets Hip-Hop take to their popular Bollywood track Illegal Weapon which was met with a thunderous applause. Our medley concluded the SDA Teachers (Anushya Mamtora, Ravi Varma & Shehnaaz Jagasia) taking over the stage with a foot tapping amalgamation of Bharatnatyam and Hip Hop to the famous rap number India 91, ending the medley on a high.

Garba at Fall A Palooza Festival 2021

Ever heard of a Garba Flash Mob? SDA is honored to have helmed and organized one of the first Garba flash mobs of Jersey City for the Learning Community Charter School (LCCS) Fall A Palooza.

Our Performance started with our SurTaal I (Arin Padia, Atharv Joshi, Durga Ramkumar & Zoya Shah) and our SurTaal 2 (Aaliya Shah & Aayan Ghosh) students singing their Hindustani Classical melodies under the guidance and training of Ms. Nidhi. Their medley included iconic Indian songs such as “Maa Tujhe Salaam”, “Namo Namo” and “Ik Tara”.

Next Up, our team of talented adult dancers (Anushya Mamtora, Janhavi Dalal, Krupa Jani, Margi Dubal, Nidhi Jhaveri & Pooja Joshi), put up a spectacular performance which showcased a graceful choreography detailing the traditional Gujarati folk dance of Garba and Dandiya Raas.
Our SDA dancers, dressed in bright pink lehengas (skirts), mirror work tops and elaborate Indian jewelry, started with the beautiful Garba song "Radha Nu Shyam" detailing the relationship before Lord Krishna and Radha and ended their act with the fast paced Dholi Taro mix, swirling in circles with absolute precision.
Our dance performance was followed by a simple Garba tutorial by our in-house Garba expert Krupa Jani, followed by a thrilling flash mob to the popular Garba based track “Dholida”. It was overwhelmingly delightful to watch students of LCCS, their teachers, parents and passersby at Lincoln Park follow along our Garba basics and join in the traditional Garba circle to ring in the heartwarming Navratri season.