Mayuri is a female Bollywood dance team on campus that travels and participates in collegiate level competitions across the United States.
The team mixes together Western styles of dancing — including contemporary, hip hop and urban dance — with Indian dances like Bharatanatyam, Bhangra, South Indian and Bollywood.
Mayuri is a female Bollywood dance team at UTK that participates in collegiate level competitions throughout the U.S. The team mixes Western styles of dance — including contemporary, hip hop and urban dance — with Indian dances like Bharatanatyam, Bhangra, South Indian and Bollywood.
Within their dances, Mayuri shares a story with their audience: they create different characters and use set pieces and costumes to build depth within their routine.
Mayuri’s performance at the Taste of India competition in Virginia on March 31 was entitled “Devdas.” In “Devdas,” the team used costuming, dialogue and a pre-filmed skit to tell a modernized version of a love story between a woman and a misogynistic man. They added their own spin to it to include female empowerment, showing that the main female character didn’t need a man in her life.
Founder of Mayuri, Ojaswini Sharma, senior in neuroscience, has been dancing since she was four years old and has an extensive background in Bharatanatyam, which is a classical dance that originated in the Indian state Tamil Nadu (formerly Madras State). She has also choreographed many Bollywood dance routines herself.
In the fall of 2017, Sharma gathered approximately 20 girls and created Mayuri after realizing that UT should have a team that specializes in these types of dances. There are about 8,000 South Asians in America that mix Western and Indian stylized dances together.
“I was aware of these teams and had watched a competition at UGA my freshman year. I was in awe at how elaborate the performances were and of the execution of fusing two completely different styles of dance,” Sharma said.
Their first competitive year was 2018-2019, during which Sharma was captain. This year’s captain is Adhya Annapureddy, a sophomore in accounting. Her responsibilities as captain include organizing the stories, creating and teaching the dances, choosing the competitions they attend, managing the committees within the team, communicating with a DJ and taking care of the team as a whole. She said that her favorite part of being on the team and serving as the captain is that she has so many people who share the same love that she does.
“The memories I have made with this team has really shaped my college experience for the better and I could not imagine it without it,” Annapureddy said. “I love being able to travel and meet so many other people on other teams across America who share the same passion that my team has.”
Sharma is very passionate about what she does, who she is and what she gets to share at their competitions.
“It means so much to me because dance has no boundaries. Anyone can enjoy our performance because dance is an art and art is subjective to the individual watching,” Sharma said.“Our team makes an effort when creating our routine for the audience to feel connected to the story. And especially being an Indian American, I really enjoy incorporating and showing the two cultures that I identify with.”
Last semester, the group won first place at their first competition, Blacksburg Ki Badmaashi, at Virginia Tech. According to Sharma, this is unheard of for most newly formed teams.
“It just goes to show that with so much love and dedication for what you do and who you are, you can go a long way,” she said.
Annapureddy urges for more students, as well as the Knoxville community, to watch them perform and learn about other cultures because of how valuable that knowledge is.
“There are many people I know who are not from an Indian background but have found their passion for Indian dance through teams like Mayuri across America. So, I say everyone should try it because you never know what you’re missing,” Annapureddy said.
Mayuri's first competitive year was 2018-2019, with the group placing first place at their first competition, Blacksburg Ki Badmaashi, at Virginia Tech in the Spring of 2019.
