For All The Browns

A look behind the curtains of “For All The Browns”

 Photo by Sonya Pandya.

Sydney Mulford, Editor-in-Chief, Milly Miao, Managing/Multimedia Editor, Banee Chadha, Photography Editor

International Night is one of the most anticipated school events each year. Students enjoy food and watch numerous performances from cultures around the world. One of the most popular acts is the senior desi dance group. For years, classes of South Asians have come together to put on the annual senior desi dance group performance at Northview’s International Night. In addition, the group competes before International Night at the Georgia Beta Convention (BetaCon).

This year’s senior desi dance group is called “For All The Browns”. Every year, the group is named based on the song or the song album that the dance is used from. To continue this part of the tradition, this year’s class used the album “For All the Dogs.”

“In the past, there has been Way2Desi (Way 2 Sexy), BrowN-95 (N-95), Desilicious (Fergalicious),” Rohan Mistry, one of the main group leaders of “For All The Browns,” said. “This year, we decided to use Drake’s new album “For All The Dogs.” Adding our twist on it, we made it ‘For All The Browns’. The song used from the album was IDGAF, [which was played for the performance at International Night].”

The group consists of South Asians who were good friends. Some even anticipated continuing this annual tradition when it came time for their class to represent their culture at BetaCon and International Night.

“This is something that's been on our minds for the past couple of years,” Muskan Jain, a member of “For All The Browns,” said. “Over the years, looking at other groups [perform the senior desi dance], all of us have just come together.”

Northview lost many students when Innovation Academy opened. Many of these students were vital dancers in the South Asian community. A few of these students, Pranav Balasubramaniam and Sree Hariharan, are still involved in “For All The Browns”–participating in both BetaCon and International Night. They are experienced dancers and thus vital performers.

“One thing that we were worried about is that we lost a lot of kids in our class of 2024 to IA [Innovation Academy],” Mistry said. “So one of the boys that we have is from IA, but he was supposed to go to Northview. If we didn't have him for International Night, we would lose a key member.”

BetaCon traditionally occurs at the end of January, so the timing between BetaCon and International Night was more convenient. However, with BetaCon moved to December this year, the group had to begin practicing in August. There were also conflicts with college applications and busy school schedules.

“We had to have an accelerated timeline, and that sort of hurts a little bit,” Mistry said. “It still worked out; it was a really good experience having us all come together.”

At BetaCon, “For All The Browns” placed first in the Small Group Performing Arts category. They were initially in the Large Group Performing Arts category, but after losing a few members at the last minute, they moved to the Small Group Performing Arts category.

“We were a little bit nervous because [some of the group members] hadn't [performed in front of a large audience] in a while,” Mistry said. “It felt like a little family because before we went up for the prelims and finals [we said] ‘you know what, we're here, we'll see how it goes and what happens.’”

Performers from “For All The Browns” at BetaCon after placing in the Small Group Performing Arts category. Photo courtesy of Muskan Jain

Now, the group has perfected their performance in anticipation of International Night.

“[At International Night] we're performing for the whole entire school, and we really have a sense of pride and community,” Jain said. “We're making sure we do the best we can for everybody.”

In order to step up their game, the group has expanded; some dancers who could not attend BetaCon now planned to dance in the International Night show. However, these members had to catch up to the rest of the group.

Muskan Jain, one of the performers at BetaCon, teaches Esha Brahmbhatt and Anya Surani the dance for International Night. Photo by Milly Miao, Managing/Multimedia Editor

“I think the fact that a lot of us did BetaCon really helped us,” Jain said. “There were a lot of people who could set aside time to help those that were just learning it and help them get on the same track as everybody else.”

They also amped up their practice schedule, practicing after school multiple days a week, including weekends. They rotated through tennis courts, basements, and neighborhood clubhouses, rehearsing whenever they had the time and space.

“We knew that we would need to do a lot of practices at the beginning of January and the end of December, just because International Night is a really big time commitment,” Jain said. “Because we're the finale, we wanted to be really good, and we wanted to be an act people remember for years to come.”

Compared to BetaCon, the International Night show is significantly longer. This meant adding new songs and dances to their performance. The group used the Desi Dance Network (DDN), an organization with a variety of college dance teams, to find inspiration.

“We’d ask someone to teach [the dance], or we would learn it ourselves from the video depending on how hard it was,” Mistry said.

Muskan Jain and Deeya Gupta watch the “Desi Girl” dance to learn and then teach the rest of the group. Photo by Milly Miao, Managing/Multimedia Editor

Most DDN groups post their music to SoundCloud. These songs are often a blend and mashup of other songs.

“Even for Indian songs, [DDN groups] will take a vocal of one song, and then a DJ will add their own drums in, and that's what they do for the dance scenes for a lot of the songs,” Mistry said.

Mistry used this music to create the soundtrack for the International Night performance. Through GarageBand, Mistry added effects, manipulated the volume, and faded the songs in and out.

Most of the performers gather together and practice with the arranged soundtrack. Photo by Milly Miao, Managing/Multimedia Editor

The group also changed the costumes from BetaCon–the girls wore sparkly blue pants and long sleeve black shirts and the guys wore all black. The girls stayed the same, while the guys wore blue crewnecks and bandanas instead of a plain black t-shirt. All in all, “For All the Browns” was excited to continue the tradition and put on a show for Northview.

“For All The Browns” practice in the cafeteria at the International Night rehearsal to prepare for the actual night of the show. Photo by Milly Miao, Managing/Multimedia Editor

“[It was a great] way to leave a lasting senior legacy though such a special dance,” Riya Havanur, a member of “For All The Browns,” said. “I hope all the grades below us get motivated to keep this tradition going.”

Saachi Shah performs Bhangra dance in the International Night show. Photo by Sonya Pandya.