Courtesy of David Huan
The Toga Tamasha’s partners dance at Bombay in the Bay 2025.This year, the school’s Bollywood fusion dance team Toga Tamasha consists of 24 dancers, led by senior co-captains Kritika Kalani and Shayaan Syed and juniors Sia Bharadhwaj and Debesh Das Sharma.
Practices began in November at weekly meetings that will continue through the end of the semester, but they plan to ramp up their schedule to two or three weekly practices next year as the team prepares for Bombay in the Bay (BnB), an annual dance and skit performance organized by the Indian Cultural Awareness club. After BnB, the team will practice once every week or two, depending on upcoming performances.
Team members were accepted through an audition process, during which the captains choreographed three dances: one boys, one girls and one group. Then, throughout the span of a week, captains taught the dances during tutorials and held tryouts over a weekend in November. This year, around 40 students tried out.
According to Kalani, the team is still relatively small, though — most Bay Area high schools have similar themed teams that are double or even triple Saratoga’s size. Due to their small size, it’s harder for Toga Tamasha to earn performance spots at local events, especially because larger teams have strong reputations already.
Typically, South Asian cultural clubs from high schools in the area host performances. Then, the team is required to submit an audition video to clinch an opportunity to perform.
This school year, the team hasn’t participated in any competitions yet, as they are preparing for BnB.
But last school year, Toga Tamasha performed at Lynbrook High’s annual Silsilay performance, joining 11 other South Asian high school dance teams in the Bay Area selected through a video audition. They also performed at Redwood Middle’s Multicultural Night in April.
“This year, I think of performances as a stepping stone for future years. Going to many competitions and performing will make it easier for captains for the next few years to continue,” Kalani said.
While the captains have high hopes for performances, they also hope to further develop the team’s bond and have fun throughout the school year.
“The reason behind the performances is just to get people together. It gives more room and incentive for people to work together and bond,” Syed said. “I’ve really enjoyed just dancing a lot, and having that ability to join something in which all people have the same passion to dance is really nice.”
