South Asian Student Associations (SASA) at Niles West and North held their annual SASA Night at the Niles West auditorium on April 12. This year’s SASA Night theme was the Indian movie, “Three Idiots.” The show displayed South Asian culture through cultural dances, a fashion show and skits.
The event allowed students to display their South Asian heritage proudly and celebrate their culture. The show started with the American National Anthem playing from the speakers, followed by the Indian anthem and Pakistani anthem. The choice to start with these anthems was a way to celebrate and show the diversity of the student South Asian community.
A major theme of “Three Idiots” is friendship, and West SASA strived to incorporate that through skits in between dances from each school.
“The past few years, a lot of the themes for the skits have kind of overlapped. So this year, we wanted to focus more on friendship and how meaningful it can be. We decided to recreate the movie “Three Idiots” because we thought that that had a great theme that kind of just showed the meaning of friendship, no matter the challenges that we face,” SASA board member Alvina Joseph said.
Halfway through the show, there was a Fashion Show displaying South Asian Attire. Students from different schools walked the stage, showcasing their cultural clothing.
The dancers of Bhangra Beatz, a cultural student dance group, spent almost a semester preparing for their performances. In addition to schools practicing their individual dance, they worked with other students from different to coordinate logistics.
“It’s like really fun working with them especially when you create a bond with them and overall, our culture is probably the best way to bond with people so SASA Night gives us that opportunity while everyone is here,” Glenbrook South Dancer for Bhangra Beatz Sania Francis said.
Niles West SASA spent four months preparing to host other schools and dancers coordinating logistics, writing scripts, practicing and more.
“We started at the end of last semester and throughout these couple of months we’ve just been practicing our lines, writing the script and then working through practices for dance performances as well,” SASA board member Alvina Joseph said.
SASA leadership reflects on the event after months of planning.
“It’s definitely been nice to get to know more people and to just kind of get closer together as a group. It can be a little chaotic at times just trying to make sure everything’s under control, but in the end, we all had a great time. It was hectic but definitely worth it,” Joseph said.
