MV Andaaz, previously known as MV Bollywood is coming back with a bang.

With a new team name, and several new members, MV Andaaz is a club that dances to a hip-hop bollywood fusion, will be performing at Spotlite and will be hosting it’s own show in February. The captains of Andaaz have attended meetings with inter-district councils, and will be attending a board meeting in a few weeks, to make this club, and the show, happen.

With a relatively new team (tryouts were a couple weeks ago,) and a show to prep for, there are so many things happening- there are meetings to go to, counsels to attend, and a lot of planning left. But through all this chaos, and in the next couple months, Captain Ajay Merchia intends to focus on team bonding, to allow the team to get to know one another better, and develop a better chemistry.

“We’ve had a strong emphasis on team bonding, we’re actually going to Lynbrook’s movie night, as a team, and in addition, we’ve also celebrated two of our teammates birthdays last week.”

Senior Keerthi Krishnan also agrees that team bonding is an important part of MV Andaaz, and believes that bonding with your club is one of the best parts of joining a club at Monta Vista.

“Team bonding’s a lot of fun, I remember freshman year it was great, and I think this year’s going to be great too.”

Merchia’s emphasis on team bonding is not only inspired by the friendships that teammates can make, but, moreover, that one can learn and improve from their teammates. Merchia’s formal dance education began as a freshman at MV, and from there his dancing style has greatly been influenced by his captains, and teammates. When Merchia first joined the team and his formal dance education began, Merchia learned a couple moves from the  previous captains. He was also inspired by, now, co-captain Shail Trivedi’s dedication to dancing, and has, since then, changed his mentality.

“Shail’s freshman year, he was caught up in volleyball, half the time he couldn’t make it to most of the practices, and yet he still performed so incredibly. The amount of dedication he put in inspired me, so I took his dedication, made it my own, and practiced everyday for several hours.”

Both Krishnan and Merchia agreed that team bonding and getting to know the people on your team will influence you a lot, but they both believed that dance will influence you the most.

Merchia considers it an important aspect in the colleges he applies to, and hopes to dance through college.

“I’ve been dancing since I was a baby, but that wasn’t any type of formal education, that was me, copying movies, and just trying to instill the Bollywood spirit inside of myself. In the colleges I apply for, I’m looking for the presence of an existing dance club. Dance is a lifelong thing.”