CRY DHAMAKA in the Bay area lives up to its name
Sam Rao
Published in INDIA POST -http://216.122.6.220/members/story.php?sstoory_id=2718
Full Article follows
San Jose, CA: CRY Dhamaka 2004- lived up to its billing in San Jose on Saturday, April 3rd with a sold out house-while dishing out an entertaining mixture of Fashion Show, Bollywood dances and a Hindi music band. The event was organized by the Bay area chapter of CRY America –Child Relief and You, Inc. - a well known and respected nonprofit helping Children’s cause in India for 25 years - (www.crybayarea.org). The participating groups included NetIp And StepZ dance groups and a newly formed Hindi music band Induzbeatz-who also organized a dance and fashion show sequence as an ensemble.
The program which was delayed had some initial longish introductory speeches by the participant groups. However, the entertainment started with a bang with 3-yearold Vaishnavi Yellapragada doing a flawless and intricate traditional prayer dance in Kucchipudi style. The talented kid-one of the youngest CRY volunteer-who had also recently won Judges’ award at the prestigious Youth Utsav Fest-San Jose- received thunderous applause for her performance and was fitting for a show produced by CRY. Many patrons and donors of CRY like Ashish Sahasrabudhe commented” I think we have already seen the best the evening has to offer- What a beautiful performance!”.
This was followed by a Fashion show by InduzFaz (Choreographer Piya and Ray Mitra) interspersed with NetIP dancers (Choreographer Kshama Lodha) with Kehana Hai Kya and Mahe Ve and StepZ Dancers (Choreographer Nidhi Mehta) with Taal se Taal and a medley of Bollywood hits. The Induz dance group also did a dance on the popular song Dola re Dola (Choreographer Sujay & Usha). The well received fashion show featured thematic dresses titled Lehanga; Saree; Salwar and a Fusion sequence.
While the Induz representative MC’s Paresh Patel and Sonia Monga were adequate in some places- there was a definite lag in many spots and they could not keep the audience in check. This resulted in time delays and hence the Hindi music band Induzbeatz got shorted in time and could only play an abbreviated set of songs.
While most in the audience came to support CRY and their friends in the Fashion and dance sequences-large clumps of people were happy browsing the lobby area which featured the CRY information booth and sponsors Well Fargo Home Mortgage (Neil Sheth) and Principal Financial (Ashok Gupta). Sponsor Neil Sheth- was pleased with the event and response and said, ” We are happy to be here and support CRY- a noble cause, and also meet the number of audience members who stopped by our table.”
Dilip Khadye coordinator for CRY Bay area summed it up as, “We are now up to 130 volunteers and growing. We plan for CRY Bay area action center to contribute a major part to the overall CRY America goal this year by (several) awareness and fundraising activities.”
For more information on CRY Bay Area: www.crybayarea.org
Stepz: www.stepz.org
Induz: www.induz.org
NetIP: Network of Indian Professionals: www.netip-sfba.org
