Ekal Vidyalaya hosted, Dance Deewane, a dance competition on November 23, 2024 at the Melrose Memorial Hall. The purpose of this event was to bring a tribe of passionate dancers together and provide a platform where their art and talent can have a purpose. 284 participants took part in the competition. Manju Sheth and the Women Who Win team released their “Girls Who Win” book at this event. Ekal supporters, Vandana and Vivek Sharma were chief guests for the event.
“The idea for this program was brought to us by Aanya Jain, a young youth volunteer. We loved the ideas and with a large team of volunteers were able to pull off the first Ekal Dance Competition” said Manisha Jain, President of the Ekal New England chapter. The competition also featured a dance by the Ekal volunteers coordinated by Parveen Minocha, regional President for Ekal New York/ New England region. “The idea was to share the story of Ekal through the medium of dance. It was such fun to put the dance together and we were glad to get a special mention” said Minocha.
Education is Ekal's flagship program. Since 1989, the organization has brought literacy and economic opportunity to over 10 million students in 80,000 villages and tribal areas in India. While there are many dance competitions, the unique thing about the Ekal event was that the funds raised were being used to bring education to the most underprivileged children in India and this touched the hearts of the performers.
“We were so inspired to see the hard work of the teachers and the performers. Thanks to the incredible support of our volunteers, we were able to pull off this complex program without a glitch” said Latha Krishnan, VP of the Ekal New England Chapter. There were 12 Judges. One of them was Vandana Sharma, a beautiful dancer herself who did an impromptu presentation on stage. Ekal is now considering making this an annual event and planning to make this go national.
Classical Solo Junior:
1st place: Ananya Magesh (Guru Aishwarya Balasubramanian, Arpanam Academy of Bharatnatyam)
2nd place: Medhini Shyam (Guru Pooja Shyam Kumar, Nrithyapooja Dance Academy)
Special Mention: Ananya Chandramurthy (Guru Pooja Shyam Kumar, Nrithyapooja Dance Academy)
Classical Solo Youth:
1st place: Kenisha Ramakrishnan (Guru Sapna Krishnan, Lasya School of Dance)
2nd place: Avantika Nair ( Guru Sripriya Natarajan Moorthy, Abhinaya Natya Sala)
Sp. Mention: Gauthami Sreedhar (Guru Sapna Krishnan, Lasya School of Dance)
Classical Solo Adult:
1st place: Pratusha Nouduri (Guru Sapna Krishnan, Lasya School of Dance)
Classical Kinder Group:
1st place: Disciples of Guru Poornima Surya - Smrithilaya
Akshara Nair, Aishwarya Surya, Sriraaga Namuduri, Akshara Bodapati
Classical Junior Group:
1st place: Disciples of Guru Preethi Ramesh - Sarasa Natya Academy
Akshaya Rajendran , Aadhya Madapadi, Nilanjana Seal, Maya Dhamodharan, Sasha Jawahar, Gayatri Loomba, Tanishka Shukla, Sahasra Lingisetty
2nd place: Disciples of Guru Pooja Shyam Kumar, Nrithyapooja Dance Academy
Medhini Shyam & Ananya Chandramurthy
Classical Youth Group:
1st place: Disciples of Guru Soumya Rajaram - Samskrithi School of Dance
Ananya Srinivasan, Shreya Ramanathan, Sharmada Rajaram, Samyuktha Rajaram, Sumedha Giridharan
Non- Classical Kinder Group:
1st place: Disciples of Guru Ekta Jain - Ekta Dance Academy
Aanya Pursnani, Aadya Sharma, Kairvi Oggu, Abhijna Bharath, Shanvika Reddy Potli, Pahal Singh, Aadya Saxena, Ameya Mekalampatta, Navya Wadikar, Alisha Khatri
2nd place: Disciples of Guru Shilpa Sanghavi, Shilpa's Dance Academy
Keeva Sah, Anaya Patel, Aahana Soni, Aneri Patel, Dhwiti Trivedi, Emma John, Riya Gadikota, Kaira Bhandari , Riona Arora
Non- Classical Junior Group:
1st place: Disciples of Gurus Archana Selvraj & Suja Sriram- Arja school of Dance
Aashi Jain, Antara Vadali, Aishwarya Yalamanchili, Aadhya Vadali, Dhanya Thamil, Rishima Singh, SapnaThandapani, Shreya Sriram, Shreya Nirmal, Sia Dogra, Tanvee Voona, Tanvi Gadagi
2nd place: Disciples of Guru Ekta Jain - Ekta Dance Academy
Saanvi Are, Bhavna Balaji, Riya Thiagarajan, Akshita Sinha, Jasmin Grover, Vidhi Darji, Manavi Bhatnagar, Akshara Singh, Ariana, Isabel Thomas November, Diya Nowley, Annika Tiana Kushangi, Krisha Anand, Akshara Ayodhya
Special Mention: Disciples of Guru Jasmine Shah - Aangikam Dance Academy
Aashna Patel, Agna Patel, Arya Lohiya, Ahana Mehta, Dviti Patel, Mahika Sood, Kavya Patel, Pari Vaidya, Jaina Patel, Sadhna Patel, Shreeya Patel
Non- Classical Youth Group:
1st place: Disciples of Guru Jasmine Shah - Aangikam Dance Academy
Anya Palermo, Ania Manwar, Anjani Patel, Dhyana Patel, Kavya Patel, Raina Nair, Simaran Patel, Surina Patel, Shakti Meiyur, Satvi Patel, Mukti Shah, Tanisha Patel
Non- Classical Adult Group:
1st place: Tollywood Dance choreographed by Sonali Surve
Bhumika Patel, Sonal Parikh, Megha Kamath, Prasanna Kiran, Aja Pickett, Kavya Thejakumar, Priyanka Dave
2nd place: Disciples of Guru Ekta Jain - Ekta Dance Academy
Sandhya Patel, Sharat Amin, Geetanjali Virmani, Neetu Gupta, Dimple Desai, Bindu Srinath, Shikha Jain, Minal Salva, Saloni Shah, Vaishali Sharma, Neha Randhir More, Aparna Parmati, Anshika Jain, Ekta Jain
Special Mention: Ekal Dance Team - coordinated by Parveen Minocha
Parveen Minocha ,Anuradha Upneja, Rita Kumar, Shital Shah, Ankita Shah, Chhavi Tiwari, Anshu Gupta, Srilakshmi Srinivasan, Niti Kapoor, Anupam Mishra, Anil Minocha, Kajal Kaushak Dixit
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