Arzan and Rhythm India Raise the Roof at Rockets Half Time!
Arzan Gonda (center first row) with her Rhythm India dance troupe after their performance at the Toyota Center last Friday, April 12. John Donovan with the Toyota Center is on the upper left.
Photo: Navin Mediwala.
Click here for video of performance
By Jawahar Malhotra
HOUSTON: It didn’t seem like a year had slipped by since the last time Arzan Gonda and her troupe were on the waxed, shiny, yellow floor of the Toyota Center, but here they were again making the whole arena pulsate with Bollywood music and a happy, energetic dance number, hallmarks of Rhythm India’s brand of performance.
They started off like a poised drill team, hands at their sides, arms straight down and waited for the music. When it came on, it was like a dynamo had been let loose and a torrent of feet ran across the floor, arms teasing the air and bodies swaying in rhythm with the pounding beat, excited eyes and smiling faces with delighted expressions connecting with the seated spectators.
In the stands were many South Asians who had come to see the ball game between the Houston Rockets and the Memphis Grizzlies (Houston lost by four points!) and some of them, like Bikram Singh and his wife Kanchan, waved to the dancers they knew. Other Houstonians sat there, amused at the performance, but totally engrossed in it.
This was the fourth time in as many years at the Rockets game for Arzan and her Rhythm India group and they already knew the drill even before they got to the floor. They had done a final rehearsal earlier on the first floor, letting out huge screams to let off energy and get the adrenaline going and then they were led down by John Donovan, with the Toyota Center, to the tunnel that opens to the floor and waited in excitement for the game to come to half-time.
The dancing was spellbinding, all ten minutes on that arena floor and the whole show was televised and also projected on the huge, new overhanging monitors. Some of the dancers had done this before in previous years; for others it was their first time in front of 18,000 spectators. All in all, it never ceased to be a rush and the crazy Bollywood music just heightened the experience.
Last year, the bhangra groups intervened with the dhols; this year it was just the fun of dancing in abandonment for four minutes that was a pleasure to watch, though it seemed longer … and then it was over just as fast.
And when it was over, the dancers let out whoops of excitement and rushed off down the tunnel to their rehearsal area, delighted that they had a chance to show their moves and add to the fabric of the city for all Houstonians to watch.