Everybody’s doing the bhangra

Bhangra dancing, with its colourful costumes and high- energy steps, is surging in popularity, and at Simon Fraser University, students are clamouring to get into North America’s only university- credit class offered in the traditional Punjabi folk dance.

Instructor Gurpreet Sian, with the SFU School for the Contemporary Arts, says reaction to the class, which began last Tuesday, has been “mind- blowing.” It was filled to capacity by the third day of registration for SFU’s spring term, and there are now 60 students registered, with 20 more wait- listed.

“Bhangra is huge ( in Metro Vancouver),” said Sian, who is also executive director of South Asian Arts, which offers bhangra classes in Surrey and Vancouver. “Honestly, Vancouver is the capital of bhangra outside of India. Vancouver, Surrey, Delta is where we have the best bhangra dancers, schools and the best teams.”

He said it’s interesting to note there are few fine arts students and no South Asian students in the bhangra class. He believes the students want to learn about a new culture and have some fun.

Not to be confused with Bollywood dancing, Bhangra is a lively folk dance form and type of music that originated in the Punjab region of India.

Farmers celebrated a good harvest by taking the moves they did in the fields and turning them into songs. Nowadays, bhangra fuses traditional Punjab instruments with Western pop music.

“The more western influence is adding in a drum kit or a guitar or electronic music, drum and bass, reggae. All that music is fused with bhangra now,” said Sian.