Artist Spotlight: Bhavika Patel

Bhavika Patel, also known as Bhavi, is currently a sophomore at North Carolina State University. She majors in computer and electrical engineering because she loves working with computers and development. With her degree, she hopes to make enough money to support her passion, dancing. After she graduates, she plans to work for a technology company and wants to keep dancing, whether it be taking classes or choreographing.

Interview:

What are your interests/hobbies?

Dance is my main passion. I love taking dance classes, although I wish I could dedicate more time to them. I spend a lot of time watching dance videos or listening to songs that I hope to choreograph to someday. I enjoy reading novels just as much as I like watching Netflix. I also like singing in the shower and eating food, my two passions after dancing.

What got you into dancing?

My parents put me in Bharatanatyam when I was five. I think they thought it would cure my chronic clumsiness. Although I am still a klutz, I have fun dancing. I got into Bollywood when my cousins and I started dancing at family functions a few times a year. I learned that I loved choreographing to different styles of music. I was further exposed to western styles like ballet and contemporary in middle school. When I got into hip-hop and contemporary, I knew I had found my favorite styles. They were the styles in which I most loved listening to the music and dancing with a sense of musicality. After joining a team in high school, I realized how a shared love of dance creates a close family and I was proud to be a part of it. Dancing is such an integral part of my life that I could not imagine not doing it.

What team(s) do you dance for? Why did you join? What positions have you held?

I am currently on NCSU Nazaare. I knew that I wanted to continue dancing in college and I thought a Bollywood team would be fun. Honestly, however, I showed up at auditions because a student encouraged me to tryout after a dance off my first week on campus (Thanks, Bhavik). I was a bit of an overachiever, so when they posted the audition video, I learned the whole piece that same day. I was really excited about auditions, and ecstatic when I made the team. I have had so much fun dancing and helping choreograph in the fusion circuit, and I am proud to be a junior captain this year. I hope to continue growing with Nazaare and follow in the footsteps that my amazing captains (Smirthi, Vijay, and Elliot) have taken to help us get to where we are now.

What has been your favorite moment so far? What are you most excited for?

At first, I would answer by saying placing first at Jhalak this past year, but when I think back to that competition, it wasn’t winning first that made that moment (although that was great, too). It was walking off that stage feeling as though I had performed like never before. It was such an experience believing that we, as a team, had brought something different to the stage. We were such a different team from the previous year, having lost many seniors and gained many new faces. We were trying something new, and although I had complete faith in my captains, there was a little anxiety about how others might perceive it. But regardless of how we were judged, I was never happier being a part of the Nazaare family than I was leaving it all on the stage in Austin. I felt as though I had truly danced with heart and soul. I am looking forward to improving as a team, and looking back to see how far we have come from where we started. I am excited about dancing against the best teams of the year at Bollywood America 2016 and cannot wait to keep meeting other amazing dancers in the circuit.

Please list 3 fun facts about you.

I can probably recite the entire script of the Harry Potter movies, as well as the books.
I am obsessed with all things Disney, but mostly the classics.
I took a workshop (and several sefies) with Phi Nguyen, Joe Larot, and Tony Tran of the Jabbawockeez.