A Day At Camp Harborview - The Bollywood Way

The sweltering heat on a bright sunny day is not the best day for dancing. Though, when you have cheerful campers, booming Bollywood music, and lovely dancers, it is hard to resist. This was the feeling at Camp Harborview as the kids came out of their comfort zones to be a part of Bollywood experience.

Recently on July 6th, 2010 a group of Bollywood performers along with their teacher, Ms. Sangita Jhaveri, proceeded down to Camp Harborview in the Long Islands of Boston for an interactive Bollywood session with the kids. Camp Harborview is a non-profit foundation designated to help children from ‘at-risk’ neighborhoods located near the Boston area. The camp provides children ages 11-14 a chance for them to leave their homes and participate in a 4-week program. The 700 children taking part in this brilliant facility have the options to try different activities they normally don’t think about doing (more details about the camp can be found at http://chvf.org). The Bollywood dance performers mentioned above visited the camp to perform for the children and add art, music, and dance to their daily routine.

Ms. Sangita started the session with a brief introduction about Bollywood. To her surprise, the audience had some perspective about Bollywood dance (I guess, thanks to the sequence ‘Jai Ho’ from the movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’!). Soon, everyone was ready to rock-n-roll. Adoring ethnic costumes (Punjabi salwaar-kameez with dupatta), the team enjoyed performing some dances on the big deck stage. They danced to the popular numbers, ‘Bhumro’ from Mission Kashmir, ‘Kajra re’ from Bunty-Aur-Babli. The scorching heat with temperature in triple digits that day could not diminish the excitement of the campers or the energy of the performers. The dancers had their undivided attention and noticed that the viewers remained joyful and enthusiastic about the graceful art. As the day went on more and more campers and counselors were engaged and took a great step to come on the deck to learn some Bollywood moves. The teacher taught some steps as well as presented pieces herself and with her students. She danced to ‘Taal se taal mila’, ‘Aaja nach le’ and of course, ‘Jai ho’. She worked patiently with the young campers and showed them several moves. In no time, they were swaying to the tunes of Bollywood music. The newly trained individuals nearly put the stage on fire when they danced freely to the hit number ‘Desi Girl’.

Later in the afternoon, the team also enjoyed a nice meal at the camp in the company of hundreds of campers.
We are aware of the popularity of Bollywood music amongst the Indian community, but to share this art with such a diverse group was an exhilarating experience. As part of the team, I really appreciate the interest and enthusiasm shown by everyone at the camp. Music and dance can definitely bring the world closer.

I would like to thank my teammates, Lindsay Clapp Bilo and Devika Ranjan and the Harborview campers. And of course, a special thanks to the

- Staff at Camp Harborview for providing a wonderful opportunity to share this Indian dance form and culture with the group and for their hospitality
- Ms. Sangita Jhaveri for teaching and performing such poised dance numbers and for arranging costumes

(Sangita can be reached at bollywoodancers@yahoo.com)

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