Senior Vaibhav Srinivasan will be continuing his dance career at the University of Michigan next fall after making Michigan Izzat, a competitive all-male dance team. The senior has been dancing for three years as a member of the Indian American Student Association (IASA).
“When I got the call that I made the team, they all trolled me first,” Srinivasan said. “I wore a shirt for OSU Genesis to my solo audition to be funny, and they told me that it was really disrespectful and that some of them were offended, but then they said, ‘we’re just playing with you.’”
Michigan Izzat is a fusion team that performs a mixture of dance styles from the Indian and American cultures, including bhangra, Bollywood and hip hop. They compete on a collegiate circuit against teams from other schools such as Ohio State University’s Genesis and Northwestern University’s Anubhav.
“I’m really looking forward to competitions,” Srinivasan said. “Those will be a lot of fun because it means travelling with the team and going to mixers.”
Srinivasan began dancing during his sophomore year when he was encouraged to join IASA by then-senior Reanna John. He first joined the Bollywood group in the IASA show and later made a competitive team, Troy Zahara, which performs annually along with teams from other schools in the area at Desi Tashan.
After a year on Zahara, Srinivasan took on a leadership role as one of the members of the IASA Board, which historically has ran the annual IASA show and led the Zahara team. As a result, he worked closely with adviser and English teacher Jennifer Opalewski over the last two years.
“Vaibhav is probably my favorite student to deal with because he’s so organized,” Opalewski said. “The biggest thing we do together is plan the IASA show, and he’s always prepared with planning practices and mapping out schedules.”
In addition to choreographing some of Zahara’s show, Srinivasan also choreographed two dances in the IASA show this year: Senior Fusion and Boys Bhangra Fusion, which he led alongside seniors Ethan Lazrado and Kamal Kadari.
“Vaibhav was great to work with,” Kadari said. “He’s always on top of his game. I’m happy for him that he made Izzat.”
Srinivasan says his favorite part of dance is the connections he makes, and he hopes that continues in college.
“I love meeting new people through dance whether it’s people from school, at our performances or people from other teams at competitions,” he said.