The Sa Dance Company on Tuesday performed a blend of contemporary Indian and American dance in an event called RISE. It took place at the Phillips Center at the University of Florida.
Creative Director Payal Kadakia Pujji founded Sa in 2008. The company is the largest dance company to be invited to perform at the White House, and RISE has had many sold-out shows. Outside of her dance career, Pujji is the founder of ClassPass, an app that allows users to book fitness and wellness classes. The company is valued at more than $1 billion.
Pujji said that she wanted to create a performance that showcases the struggle of women and recognizes the resilience of all the women who have come before her. She said, growing up, the strongest women she knew were her mother, aunties and grandmother.
“I always get asked this question of, how did I do it being a South Asian woman? And to me, the answer to that was, what do you mean?” Pujji said. “I did it because I am her. Because she is the strongest woman I know.”
RISE has four sections that depict the different stages of a woman’s life. According to the show’s program, the story illustrates a woman in her youth with many dreams, the tension she faces as she ages and is pressured to conform to society, the resilience she develops in overcoming these challenges, and finally, the hope she finds in the women around her.
“We talk about hard challenges and themes from the expectations that are put on us from such a young age,” Pujji said. “I want to show the story of how women, despite the cards they’ve been dealt, are able to move forward.”
RISE includes different types of traditional Indian dances, including Gatka, Odissi and Gujarati. Throughout the show, there are songs played in seven dialects. Pujji explained that even someone from India wouldn’t be able to understand all of the lyrics in the show. She wanted the message of the performance to be conveyed through the dancing and body language, not just the lyrics.
“All of the dances have specific meaning,” Pujji said. “Indian dance comes from a specific form of storytelling, and mostly all Indian dances are based on that.”
The third segment of the performance features four stories of women either in the show or associated with the company. A voiceover of each woman sharing her story is played as a dancer performs a solo to represent the story. The topics of some of the stories include abuse and miscarriage.
Rashi Birla has been dancing with Sa since 2012, and is one of 11 dancers in the company. She said that this segment is one of her favorite parts. She said that many of the issues in Indian culture, such as women being expected to be homemakers, are sometimes reflected in other cultures, too, and that the themes of the show can be transferred to many women.
“As an Indian American, we see that side of our culture when we go back to India, and then we come back to America and see that things don’t have to be that way,” Birla said. “We are strong women who can break those traumas, and that’s what the third segment talks about.”
One section of the show features the women holding a flat wooden object and performing a traditional Indian folk dance called a “supra.” The baskets and movements in the dance represent a traditional chore for Indian women, where they go out and clear the grains in the fields. Pujji explained that this section was meant to convey the joy that is found in doing work and in dancing.
Despite the deep cultural meaning the show has for Indian Americans, Pujji said that she doesn’t intend for it to be only for a specific group of people.
“I hope people feel the real human experience of what women go through from little girls to women,” Pujji said. “I hope they feel empowered and seen in that room.”
Pujji has been building Sa for over two decades. She said she looks for a specific woman who has had training in Indian dance and can reflect the three pillars of the company: training, technique and respect.
Many of the women in the show, including Birla, have been training since they were 4 or 5, and many were on dance teams in college.
Anamika Naidu is a senior at UF. She is a member of Gator Tufaan, a co-ed fusion dance team that blends Indian, Western and West African dance styles. She spoke with some of the dancers after the show and learned that they competed in some of the same competitions her dance team does.
“It’s so cool seeing how these women have pursued their passion for dance,” Naidu said. “It makes me think that maybe one day I could do the same.”