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Samsara, The Annual South Asian Culture Show takes place this Saturday at 8:30 p.m. in Crowell Concert Hall. Showcasing the cultures of South and North India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, the show consists of spoken word, songs, and dances, including classical dance as well as contemporary and fusion performances. Shakti, Wesleyan’s South Asian Culture Association, which is coordinating the show, is adding two twists this year–it will be hilariously titled “Our Big Fat Brown Wedding, From Middletown to Mumbai,” and include performances by dance teams from Yale and Brown.

“We play it like a Bollywood movie on stage,” said Anika Amin ’14, one of the students in charge of Shakti and is coordinating Samsara (a Jack of all trades, Amin is also choreographing and performing in the show).

I personally got a little preview of the show at a rehearsal this week for a Bhangra dance number. Often described as “the hip-hop of Indian dance,” this dance form hails from the Punjab region of North India. Watching the rehearsal,  I can say safely that the dancers were stomping high to the driving bass beat under the traditional Indian sounds, and it seemed just as fun to do as it was to watch.

Amin agrees.

“Samsara is going be a blast,” she raved.  “It’s gonna be an experience. It’s gonna take you out of Wesleyan and Middletown in a really fun way…[and let you] just enjoy a different world.”

Shakti’s goal in putting on Samsara is to give the campus a taste of what South Asia is all about.

“Shakti want to get people who like the culture, who are interested in it and give them something to be like, ‘Hey, this is what we are, this is what exists in other parts of the world, and its what exists here too. If you want to be a part of it, come be a part of it because it’s a lot of fun,’” Amin said.