Last Friday and Saturday nights, the Indian Asian Student Association Sangam put on their Annual Cultural Show in Xavier Hall Auditorium. Consisting of dances and skits representing various aspects of Indian and South Asian culture, the cultural show attracted nearly 850 people during its two-night run.

IASA Sangam began performing their cultural show in 1998 (the same year IASA was founded) as a way to highlight the art and music of South Asia-in particular India-through dance and song. While the show maintains this original purpose, in recent years it has also become an outlet for students to address issues that are common to South Asian students here and abroad. Traditionally, the show develops around a student-written storyline about these issues.

This year’s show, “East Side Story,” centered around a fictional narrative involving two families, the Gopalakrishnamuruthys and the Mukherjees, who are neighbors in an anonymous setting in India. The story follows Ramesh Gopalakrishnamuruthy, a young man, and Juji Mukherjee, a young woman, who fall in love in the midst of their families’ property conflict.

The writers of the narrative-Arun Idiculla, Saloni Nayar, Suraj Parulkar and Anand Srivastava-billed the play as an “Eastern rendition of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.”

In recent years, the show has grown in popularity. This year, for the first time in its eight-year history, tickets for the show sold out two days before the performance. Likewise, participation in the show has increased; nearly 100 students performed in this year’s show.

In between scenes of the Gopalakrishnamuruthies and the Mukherjees arguing and Ramesh and Juji falling in love, students performed dances, each representing a different aspect of Indian culture.

Some dances conveyed traditional features of Indian culture from various regions. Performers danced Bhangra from South India and Bharatanatyam and Kathak, both of which originated over 2,000 years ago as a form of temple prayer. They also performed a fashion show, highlighting traditional lengha and sari dress, and Raas-a classical dance from the state of Gujarat in which partners slap and drum with pairs sticks known as “dandvas.” ??

Other?numbers combined hip-hop and R&B to reflect modern Indian culture and convey the recent introduction of elements of Western culture to Indian art.

IASA began work on the show during the first semester, when the show chairs, Maheen Bokhari and Junaid Munshi,?began holding tryouts, finalizing a performers list, reserving space, talking to sponsors and even practicing Raas and Bhangra.

During intermission, IASA sold samosas-a common Indian appetizer made of potatoes, peas and spices in a fried bread-to raise money for KidSmart, a St. Louis charity that provides school supplies to underfunded classrooms. IASA expects that they raised nearly $4,000.

IASA Sangam aims to organize events that of social, religious and cultural significance to India and South Asia. The group is open to students of any nationality who want to learn more about Indian and South Asian culture. The name of the group, Sangam, which means “a confluence of two rivers” in Sanskrit, exemplifies this goal.

“We have been very successful in opening IASA to non-Indians and teaching them about the diversity and beauty of South Asia,”?said Ankur Dave, president of IASA Sangam.

“We have given our members and culture a voice on this campus, and hopefully this trend will continue in future years.”