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Every year, the cultural societies in Delhi University work tirelessly to put their best foot forward and emerge as the winner. Likewise, this year, some teams managed to outshine others and win big at various college fests in the Varsity. We bring to you a series with the college societies that bagged the top positions during the fest season 2016-17.

The best college society in each category was selected by creating a tally of the top 3 positions at competitive events held during various cultural fests of this season. Whenever a society won the first prize they were awarded 3 points, for the second position they received 2 points.

In the Choreography category, Terpsi Chorean, Choreography Society of Hansraj College scored the maximum points. Terpsi Choreon’s 16 points were followed by Sparx, the Choreography Society of Gargi College (13 points). The third position was bagged by Sensation, the Choreography Society of Kirori Mal College (12 points).

 

The Winning Society at a glance

Terpsi Chorean, Hansraj College:

Their annual production named ‘The Unfading’ was a thrilling tale full of secrets and broken family ties, depicting the chilling effect that memory can have on us. It revealed how some of us obsess over some memories, run away from some, while others are repressed. The ten minute performance depicted how, contrary to popular belief, our memory is not our friend; it is a monster that controls us.

Palak Aneja, the President of the society says, “It feels extremely proud to have fought through all the odds and emerged victorious. Every word of appreciation from the audience brings a sense of accomplishment, because winning hearts is greater than just winning a competition. You can make the audience believe in your theme only when each team member truly believes in it. A lot of dedication and hard work goes behind the glorious victories, but nothing is impossible when we become each other’s strength, both on and off stage.

Performing members: 

  • Palak Aneja – President
  • Anoushka Chopra – Public Relations Head
  • Shreyasee Sen – Treasurer
  • Pawni Singhal
  • Vidhi Maheshwari
  • Gauri Shukla
  • Rishita Sachdeva
  • Nehul Goyal
  • Sharvika Deo
  • Damanpreet Singh
  • Saksham Bhargava
  • Keshav Khurana
  • Deven Chhabra
  • Simran Sahni
  • Deepak Arora
  • Deepika Dubey
  • Shreya Setia
  • Raghavi Chauhan
  • Soumya Mittal

Winners Tally: Terpsi Chorean

Out of the considered fests this year, 8 had conducted a competitive Choreography event, namely Crossroads, Montage, Ullas, Tarang, Confluence, Mecca, Reverie and Nexus. Here is the list of winning performances by Terpsi Chorean (Hansraj College):

 

1st Position: Crossroads, Tarang, Montage, Nexus

2nd Position: Mecca, Reverie

 (Hover over the icons to know more about their victories)

Design by Alex Arthur
Picture Credits: Alex Arthur

Lovleen Kaur

[email protected]

Confluence- The annual cultural festival of Hansraj College which was a four days long was packed with various events by several societies and departments. This time, the fest was not just limited to cultural events and Star Nights but also included the technical fest and departmental fests in this same frame. Although the events and performances entertained the audiences spread across the four days but the prime attraction of the fest – a concert by Diljit Dosanjh had ended abruptly which left a lot of fans disheartened.

 

Day One: Inauguration,  Street Play, Western Choreo  and informal games. 

The first day began with the inaugural ceremony with teachers and members of the student union lighting the inaugural lamp. This was followed by the principal Dr. Rama, the principal of the college declaring the fest open. “We look to make Confluence 2017 to be bigger and better this year” she said.

 

This was followed by various events by the various departments of the college as well as events by the societies of the college. While ‘Botanique’ the botanical society organised ‘floristics’ their annual fest which saw the presence of an  alumnus Mr Varun Narain, a puppeteer who presented an excellent piece called photosynthesis in moonlight, the computer science department organised competitions of coding  and encrypt-decrypt. The Hansraj Dramatics Society organised ‘Bolbala- The Street Play Competition’ in which the first Prize was bagged by ‘Anuhuti’ of Sri Venkateswara College for their production ‘A’. The second and third prizes were won by Ibtida of Hindu College for ‘Saare Jahan Se Acha’ and Kshitij of Gargi College for ‘Main Kashmir aur aap?’ respectively. The event was organised in a non-competitive manner were participants chose the winners among themselves.  

In the Choreo competition was won by ‘Sensation’- the choreography society of Kirori Mal College while ‘Sparx’ the choreography society of Gargi College bagged the runners up prize. The first day also saw a lot of informal events like Momo Attack and Carom Games by Mathematics Department, Demarcedo and Mock Stock by commerce society and Mini Militia by Haritima 

 

Day Two: Youth Summit, Pahal and Art Exhibition 

Major attractions of Day 2 were the ‘Youth Summit’ organised by the NSS of Hansraj College, ‘Pahal’ by the society for the differently abled and Art Exhibition on show by Kalakriti.


The ‘Youth Summit- UTSAV’ organised by NSS showcased its community service programmes through a short documentary which was followed by a song by underprivileged kids of ‘Padhaku’. This was followed by a speaker session where the speakers inspired students to actively take part in community service and give back to the country.
Meanwhile at ‘Pahal’, differently abled students from across the university showcased their talent in singing, dancing and other extra-curricular activities.

The art exhibition saw numerous rhapsodies of art and colourful expressions at display for the visitors.

The second day also saw lots of fun events by various societies like ‘Gulli Cricket’, ’Slamp Poetry’ and ‘Game of Thrones- Utility Maxima’.

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underprivileged kids of Padhaku presenting a choir.

Day three: Musical Events, Cultural Show by North East Society and DJ Taran Duo

The third day of Confluence opened with melodious music events in the auditorium which were organised by Swaranjali, the music society of Hansraj College. The Indian Choir competition marked the start of the day which was won by ‘Dhwani’, the Indian music society of Lady Shri Ram College. ‘Musoc’ of Kirori Mal College won the second prize while the third prize was won by ‘Alaap’ of Sri Venkateswara College.

 

 

This was followed by the western choir which was won by Zephyr of Kamala Nehru College won the champions prize while the runners up was bagged by ‘Echo’ the western music society of Jesus and Mary College. The western Solo Dance was won by Gurpreet Kaur of JMC and Isha Chakrobarty of Gargi College bagged the runners up. 

 

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The cultural show organised by the north east society of Hansraj College drew a large attention with students performing regional dances like Bihu and Assamese Dances. The exhibition and Meena Bazaar which were on display at the LP near the canteen also drew a huge crowd.

 

 

The day came to an end in the evening with DJ Taran duo bringing the crowd to its feet with numbers like ‘Kala Chasma’ and ‘Aae dil hi mushkil’. 

 


 

 

Day Four: Folk and Indian Dances, Diljit Dosanjh live in Concert

The fourth was filled with lot of euphoria around with long queue of Dance events lined up for the day.  In the classical solo dance competition Nimisha from Janki Devi Memorial Cometition won the 1st Prize, the second prize was jointly won by Saumya Mittal of Miranda House College and Aishwarya of Sri Venkateswara College. The Classical Duet competition was won by Raghav and Aishwarya of Sri Venkateswara College.

   

The Folk Dance competition saw ‘Nrityakriti’ of Maitreyi College bagging the first prize with Haryanvi Folk Dance Competition. SGTB Khalsa College won the second prize while the third prize was jointly bagged by SGND Khalsa and Gargi College respectively.

 

The prime attraction of the day was the star night featuring Govinda, Diljit Dosanjh and Progressive brothers. While Govinda cancelled his plans in the last minute, Diljit’s concert was cut short with just a couple of songs due to the unruly crowd and various circumstances for safety reasons.

 

 

 

 

 

 Confluence 2017 Overview

 

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You can check the entire album of Confluence 2017 here.

 

Correspondents: Arindam Goswami, Anagha Rakta, Saumya Kalia, Vineeta Rana, Kriti Sharma, Joyee Bhattacharya, and Srivedant Kar

Photographers: Hitanksha Jain, Vegh Daswani, Prateek Singh, Sahil Chauhan, Harshit Thukral and Jasmine Chahal

 

Related: Read more from the life at Delhi University series here

 What sets it apart?

The choreography societies were formed from 2002, a young conception, it is currently under operation in colleges such as Sri Venkateswara College, Lady Shri Ram College, Hindu, Hansraj, Kirori Mal, Gargi College, Kamala Nehru College, Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT) and Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D) Students choreograph their production often with the help from professional dance choreographers. The piece is built around a theme or a story based on social issues, mythologies, and fiction while others take inspirations from movies and books.  It is story telling in the form of dance; abstract yet meaningful. The ten-minute production is accompanied by a voice over in the beginning and in the end, that explains the theme and concludes it respectively.

 Not just a hobby

Being a member of the dance society, it is both, physically and mentally challenging. With practices stretching for as long as six hours it is no more just a casual hobby. In school, dances would be put up in 2 days time; college productions on the other hand, are a result of months of training, planning and choreography. Since it involves a storyline, students have to come up with ideas and concepts and build them in such a way that they leave an impact on the audience.

 Blood, Gut and Sweat

Initial months consist of rigorous training and stamina building. Blood, sweat and injuries are an every day passing thing, the body is perpetually agonized by sores and clots with pain in places you could never imagine. And yet, the members remain passionate and turn up day after day for the love of dance.

 The Challenge

It is important to have dancers that exhibit the same level of experience and training when on stage, decreasing the disparity between first, second an third years, which in fact, is natural. There is always an effort in making these differences less apparent and bringing the dancers to, if not same, but to at least a similar level.

 Just Friends Or…

There is no body you see more than your society members. You spend almost quarter of your day with them, everyday for 6 months. These people become your friends and eventually, the more clichéd, family. Most often your best friend would be your co society member and your purpose coming to college changes from your academic subject to your society. There is natural bonding just by the virtue of being around each other all the time and sharing memories from the outstation trips and DU festivals.

 All Rounder Much?

A dancer of the dance society is not only good at dancing but also other facets such as multitasking, crisis management and teamwork. Learning here is beyond dance, extending to life in general. The society builds you as an independent, dedicated, empathetic person, while also increasing your social circle. The fun and good times sneaked between practices always remain with you. It’s a place that makes you feel bad for the people who aren’t a part of this crazy rollercoaster. Being a member of the dance society, commitment, is the key for realizing your growth along with hard work and practice. Each day counts. The strenuous dance schedules and long hours of practice can sometimes take a toll, both on the body and studies. Time management is integral to work out a balance among various spheres but in the end, the magic of stage and lights shared with your tribe make it all worthwhile. [gallery columns="1" size="full" ids="36617,36618"] In pictures: Nritya, the choreography society of SVC Shefali Bharati [email protected]]]>

Every year, societies from colleges across the campus compete neck to neck and put up spectacular performances during the fest season. This year too, saw certain teams shine a little brighter than the rest. We bring you a series with college societies that put their heart and soul into their respective fields and took home the top prizes at various cultural fests.

The best college society in each category was selected by creating a tally of the top 3 positions at competitive events held during various cultural fests of this season. Whenever a society won the first prize they were awarded 3 points, for the second position they received 2 points and for the third position, 1 point was added to their tally.

For the Choreography category, Srijya, Hindu College scored the maximum points in the tally. Hindu College secured the first place with a score of 15 points. They were followed by Terpsi Chorean , Hans Raj College with a score of 12 points and Sparx, Gargi College at 5 points.

 

 The Winning Society at a glance

Srijya, Hindu College

The production titled, Vengeance, dealt with the mindset of society. The production thematically attempted to bring a new angle to the well known dicing game and Draupadi cheerharan episode. By inserting a feminist angle and by making it their own, the winning performance questioned why Draupadi should have freed the husbands who watched as she was abused openly.

Radhika Agarwal , the vice president of Srijya said, “There are no words to describe this feeling. It feels great to finally have your hardwork acknowledged by everyone that you admire, and we are over the moon because of the feedback we have been getting from all the judges as well as the audience. We are extremely happy that we were able to live up to the expectations we had set for ourselves and make a mark”

Performing Members: Radhika Agrawal, Sonakshi Mittal, Kalpita Kachroo, Himani Sahni, Niharika Jain, Ashrita Arora, Ascharya Dagur, Sanjana Bhardwaj, Sheena Thukral, Ananya Iyer, Chandan Singh, Prince Kumar Gogoi, Aditya Singh, Sidharth Yadav, Arushi Mathur, Pali Singh.

Winners Tally: Srijya (Hindu College)

Seven fests were taken into account in our analysis for this series which were Montage (JMC), Nexus (Sri Venkateshwara College), Mecca (Hindu College), Crossroads (SRCC), Reverie (Gargi College), Tarang (LSR) and Confluence (Hans Raj College).

Following is the list of winning performances by Srijya (Hindu College) :

Ist Position: Tarang 2016 (LSR), Nexus 2016 (Sri Venkateshwara College), Reverie 2016 (Gargi College), Crossroads (SRCC) and Confluence (Hansraj College)

(Hover on the icons below to know more about their victories)
Tooba Towfiq
[email protected]

The Western Dance Society, the Classical Dance Society and the Choreography Society at Hindu College collaborated for what was touted to be the first ever dance fest in the country -Aramya 2016. Held on the 15th and 16th of March, this two-day dance extravaganza saw enthusiastic participation from across Delhi.

Day 1 of Aramya began with a street dance competition, which saw the participation of 3 teams. Sri Venkateswara College walked away with first place in street dance. This was followed by a performance by a professional dance troupe-‘Sandhya.’ The next event for the day was a classical solo competition, with 3 participants.

In the western dance competition on Day 2, 10 teams participated, with IIT Delhi taking first position. This was followed by a number of informal events like tug-of-war where the dance teams were pitted against each other. Aramya ended with the choreography dance competition, in which Kamla Nehru College stood first.

‘Aramya’ is an amalgamation of the names of the Western Dance Society (‘Arambh’), the Classical Dance Society (‘Adhrita’) and the Choreography Society (‘Srjya’). ‘Aramya’ came alive on social media platforms through behind the scenes videos of various participating groups, as well as ‘Humans of Aramya’ which featured the stories of individual dancers.

Sidharth Yadav, one of the organisers of the event, says,”It was a huge task to organise the event on such a large scale, but this was a successful step towards strengthening the dance community in the city. The event involved the contribution of a lot of people and managed to inspire vibrancy in the art form.”

Picture credits: Siddharth Yadav 

Abhinaya Harigovind

[email protected]

The second day at Reverie started with western solo and group singing competitions organized by Euphony, the western music society of Gargi College. In the solo competition, Shruti Dhasmana of Gargi College secured the first position with Shivesh Chagti of Hansraj College getting the second and Sharvi Yadav of Sri Venkateswara College, the third position.

The western group singing competition, judged by Vasundhra Vee and Sherry Matthews saw the team from St. Stephen’s bagging the first position while Musoc, Kirori Mal College came second and the team from Gargi College coming third.

The Indian group singing competition at Reverie, Sangam followed the western singing competition. Organized by Samranjini, the Indian music society of Gargi College, it was judged by singers Debu Bhattacharjee and Sushmita Kuri. Alankaar, Hindu College emerged as the winner with Miranda House’s Indian music choir coming second and the third position was tied between Gargi College and Sri Venkateswara College.

The final competitive event of the day was Cursiv-iti, the choreography competition organized by Sparx, the choreography society of Gargi College. The event saw 10 teams showcasing their productions. The first position was secured by Srijya, Hindu College with getting the second position going to Sparx, Gargi College and Terpsi Chorean, Hansraj College getting the third position.

For the EDM night Lost Stories performed to close Day 2.

Reverie
Lost Stories at Reverie | Captured by Jasmine Chahal for DU Beat!

Kartikeya Bhatotia
Arushi Pathak
Nishita Agarwal

Photos by Chirag Sharma, Jasmine Chahal, Snigdha Sharma and Alex Arthur

Related: Read more from the life at Delhi University series here

 What sets it apart?

The choreography societies were formed from 2002, a young conception, it is currently under operation in colleges such as Sri Venkateswara College, Lady Shri Ram College, Hindu, Hansraj, Kirori Mal, Gargi College, Kamala Nehru College, Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT) and Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D) Students choreograph their production often with the help from professional dance choreographers. The piece is built around a theme or a story based on social issues, mythologies, and fiction while others take inspirations from movies and books.  It is story telling in the form of dance; abstract yet meaningful. The ten-minute production is accompanied by a voice over in the beginning and in the end, that explains the theme and concludes it respectively.

 Not just a hobby

Being a member of the dance society, it is both, physically and mentally challenging. With practices stretching for as long as six hours it is no more just a casual hobby. In school, dances would be put up in 2 days time; college productions on the other hand, are a result of months of training, planning and choreography. Since it involves a storyline, students have to come up with ideas and concepts and build them in such a way that they leave an impact on the audience.

 Blood, Gut and Sweat

Initial months consist of rigorous training and stamina building. Blood, sweat and injuries are an every day passing thing, the body is perpetually agonized by sores and clots with pain in places you could never imagine. And yet, the members remain passionate and turn up day after day for the love of dance.

 The Challenge

It is important to have dancers that exhibit the same level of experience and training when on stage, decreasing the disparity between first, second an third years, which in fact, is natural. There is always an effort in making these differences less apparent and bringing the dancers to, if not same, but to at least a similar level.

 Just Friends Or…

There is no body you see more than your society members. You spend almost quarter of your day with them, everyday for 6 months. These people become your friends and eventually, the more clichéd, family. Most often your best friend would be your co society member and your purpose coming to college changes from your academic subject to your society. There is natural bonding just by the virtue of being around each other all the time and sharing memories from the outstation trips and DU festivals.

 All Rounder Much?

A dancer of the dance society is not only good at dancing but also other facets such as multitasking, crisis management and teamwork. Learning here is beyond dance, extending to life in general. The society builds you as an independent, dedicated, empathetic person, while also increasing your social circle. The fun and good times sneaked between practices always remain with you. It’s a place that makes you feel bad for the people who aren’t a part of this crazy rollercoaster. Being a member of the dance society, commitment, is the key for realizing your growth along with hard work and practice. Each day counts. The strenuous dance schedules and long hours of practice can sometimes take a toll, both on the body and studies. Time management is integral to work out a balance among various spheres but in the end, the magic of stage and lights shared with your tribe make it all worthwhile.     [gallery columns="1" size="full" ids="36617,36618"]   In pictures: Nritya, the choreography society of SVC Shefali Bharati [email protected]]]>