The odds seem to be stacked against the captains of MV Bhangra. It is the first time in many years that all the leaders are new to the position. On top of that, they are responsible for finding new and upcoming talent for the team, as nine seniors — about half of their team — had graduated last school year.The new Bhangra captains include juniors Arnav Hemmedy and Ishani Singh and seniors Priya Gundavajhala and Nandhini Pandurangan.

Although they are all adjusting to their new role, they are excited for the upcoming year. In an efforts to recruit students for the Friday after-school workshops, MV Bhangra created a promo video based off of the #KiKiChallenge that went viral over the summer.

“For the past couple years we haven't had as big of a turnout as MV Bhangra has had in the past,” Gundavajhala said. “We think it's because a lot of people might be like intimidated by our team and they might feel like our dance styles [are] harder than the other two teams [Raas and Andaaz]. We kind of really tried to put some message out this year that it's not any harder, and that people have no reason to be intimidated by us.”

Many of the captains feel the pressure of leading the team with no one to guide them.

"We're left to showcase that culture in a way that's true to itself." -Priya Gundavajhala

“We're pretty much winging everything, and just hoping for the best,” Pandurangan said. “Because as first years we're all over the place. We're trying to focus on everything at the same time. So maybe just giving [priority] to certain things and just like letting go of the other things that's hard for us.”

The new captains did receive some mentoring when adjusting to this position. According to former two-year captain and alumnus Gokul Pillai, at the start of this year’s summer, the old captains of the team held a two hour meeting with the new captains to prepare them for the upcoming year.

“Having an experienced captain makes a big difference,” Pillai said. “There are just so many things that the captains do that the other members don't even know about, behind the scenes. We couldn't really necessarily do much about it. What we're trying to do is, just communicate as much as possible. We've told them many times … we could help you guys out and you guys are going to need help.”

However, the main message that Pillai and former captains wanted to pass down was the difference between being a captain and a friend. The balance of being strict and having fun with the team was emphasized during their meeting. According to Pillai, it to took him about one year to find this balance

“As a captain, you may think that in order to really change something and make a difference, you have to be strict because otherwise people aren't going to listen,” Pillai said. “If you are overly strict, the team members will eventually just check out and they just won't really respect your own word. It's finding a balance because you can't just be too submissive and let the team do whatever they want, have as much fun as their want. Because otherwise, it's just become a fun team, and then quality of dances drops down.”

Although the new captains are still trying to figure out this balance, another problem both Pandurangan and Gundavajhala face is establishing their leadership over the team.

“I think the most difficult thing we've had to deal with is that we made it on the team with a lot of people that [are] our members, so we were their equals, we grew together, we improved together,” Gundavajhala said. “Now we kind of have to mentor them even though we're like pretty close to the same level. So it can be hard to kind of establish that kind of dominance over them.”

According to Pandurangan, one key factor that seems to be helping the new captains this year is communication, not only with themselves but also with other members on the team. Unlike previous years, all the captains are new and do not have underlying understanding of what the other captains may be doing.

“They [old captains] told us to, not be too intimidated or scared of the task of captaining because they told us to trust in our abilities and whenever issues come up on the team to just handle it calmly, as a team,” Gundavajhala said. “If we have issues or anything just to talk them out instead of you know, letting it come between us or other people.”

Pillai also mentioned maturity as an essential in a captain. It’s one of the qualities that they were looking for when picking captains.

“Maturity is the biggest one [quality],” Pillai said. “As captains we tell them, we tried to set them up, prepare them as much as possible. There's just certain situations that may happen that no one may have no one would have prepared you for, but you need to have the maturity and calmness to be able to deal with situations.”

“We're pretty much winging everything, and just hoping for the best.” - Nandhini Pandurangan

The captains have different visions for how they want to change the team. According to Gundavajhala, they all want to implement their own ideas into the team to see it grow.

“Bhangra put on some like pretty impressive performances because we've had people with a lot of experience and the Punjabi background, [people who] really understand the art form of the dance and are able to bring that to life on stage,” Gundavajhala said. “We're left to showcase that culture in a way that's like true to itself.”

Pillai is excited for the upcoming year of Bhangra and what the new captains have in store. He says the old captains are confident in the new captains’ abilities to lead this year.

“All I can do is like hope that it goes really well,” Pillai said. “I do have a belief that these guys have the potential to do good things and make sure that team goes well. The thing is because there's so much thats new [there] is no way to really predict how it’s going to go.”

According to Gundavajhala, the new captains are taking everything in stride and are excited with being left with the legacy of leading MV Bhangra.

“I think when you're captain it's really cool [to see] that this product that you create … the music, the dance, the formations and everything and see that on stage is really exciting,” Gundavajhala said. “I'm really excited.”