On March 29, Davis’ classical Indian dance group, Sunatya, will host their showcase titled Davis Dheem Tana 2014 alongside teams from universities around the country, including UCLA, USC, UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, University of Washington, Penn State, Tufts and Stanford.

Davis Dheem Tana 2014 is made possible by a partnership with the Davis branch of Visions Global Empowerment. Since its inception in 2003, this nonprofit organization has conducted over 28 life skills training programs at universities and schools in South Asia. All proceeds from this event will be donated to youth affected by poverty and conflict.

The 11 dancers in Davis’ all-female group Sunatya are trained in Bharatanatyam, which is a dance form originating in India. Originally performed by temple dancers in ancient times, Bharatanatyam is now widely performed around the world. The team prides itself in combining the classical form of Bharatanatyam with modern influences for a contemporary audience.

“It’s a very ancient dance form and it was revived relatively recently in the 20th century,” said Neha Palacherla, a fourth-year English major who has been dancing since she was five. “It has become very popular here in the States and all over the world, even outside of India. There are a lot of classically trained dancers.”

Bharatanatyam involves a lot of skill and endless practice. Many group members have been dancing since they were children and each brings a slightly different style to the team.

“The thing with the dance form that we do is that it requires a certain amount of training beforehand. All the girls on the team have been trained for a couple of years. Most of them have at least 10 years’ experience,” Palacherla said.

The group name “Sunatya” means “graceful dance.” The team have been promoting the showcase through their Facebook page, website and also in the community. They will be tabling on the Quad this week.

“There are a lot of Indian community organizations so we’ll be reaching out to them. We’re all from different dance schools so we’ve been asking our teachers to tell their students to come [to the show],” Palacherla said.

Anisha Rajavel, a third-year biochemistry major, captains Sunatya with fellow UC Davis student Ahalya Prakash. Rajavel has been dancing for 13 years.

“[The captains] are in charge of choreographing all the dance moves. Our modern influence is primarily the music. We generally keep the choreography traditional,” Rajavel said.

Classical Indian dancing is already popular on the East Coast, and there are several large competitions such as Laasya. Rajavel and Prakash first decided to put on the show last Spring Quarter. Davis Dheem Tana 2014 is the first showcase to be held on the West Coast and will see several competitive college dance teams come together to raise cultural awareness in the Davis community.

“Two of the teams that are coming [to dance in the show] placed second and third at one of the biggest competitions on the East Coast. I’m really excited to dance at the same show as them,” Rajavel said.

Ritika Johal, a fourth-year neurobiology major, has been a part of the Davis branch of Visions Global Empowerment since 2011.

“My role as president basically includes coming up with new fundraising ideas. We have a Visions member, Ahalya [on the dance team]. She has been with us for two years, so we thought it would be perfect to partner up,” Johal said in a phone interview.

The partnership with the Davis branch of Visions Global Empowerment has worked well.

“We are completely non-profit and we want to do our part for the community. Visions tends to [help people in] the place where Bharatanatyam comes from. [Visions] also have lots of events experience,” Rajavel said.

The dancers wear traditional costumes which are adjusted to make them easier to dance in. Each team will have eight minutes to perform, and each dance follows a storyline. The showcase will appeal to all audiences and no previous knowledge of Bharatanatyam is necessary.

“You don’t have to be Indian [to watch the show]. Each team has a video to introduce their stories so you don’t have to know anything about the dance before coming,” Rajavel said.

Davis Dheem Tana 2014 will begin at 5 p.m. at the Richard Brunelle Performance Hall on March 29. Tickets bought in advance are $10 for students and $15 for the general public. Tickets can be purchased online at davisdheemtana2014.wix.com/dheemtana.

At what point does a musical composition have anything to do with water management and soil sciences? For most of us, never, but for the students in UC Davis’ academic course “Earth Water Science and Song” (Science and Society 42), they intertwine perfectly. For the past five years, UC Davis has offered this cross-disciplinary course for undergraduate students interested in understanding the connections between music and science.

Science and Society 42 (SAS 42) is part of the Art-Science Fusion Program at UC Davis. The program was founded in the early 2000s by Professor of entomology Diane Ullman and local artist Donna Billick in hopes of teaching students how to use creativity to spark innovation in both science and the arts. In 2009, SAS 42 was added to the roster of classes that would be a part of this unique academic venture.

Professor Emeritus of land, air and water sciences, Wendy Silk, co-founded the class with a former graduate student. Silk, who said she has a passion for music and science, explained that students often view music as simplistic, when it’s really just as complex as science. She said she believed that by putting the two subjects side-by-side in the same course, students would not only see the similarities between the two, but that they would reap the benefits of mixing these disciplines.

“In my decades of teaching, my greatest frustration was the anxiety and boredom that science classes seemed to trigger in the students,” Silk said. “With music and performing, I find that they’re almost always uplifted from the stress. I realized that if we could bring music into the classroom and have the students work in ensembles and bring their own creativity to the subject, then it would be a good way to get them to enjoy learning.”

Students in the class attend lecture in the morning twice a week where they learn about nutrient cycles, water, carbon and nitrous cycles, resource management, pollution, global climate change and water management. The students then meet for two hours once a week for music discussion where they learn basic music concepts (i.e. harmony, melody, rhythm), lyric writing and how to perform in public. They are also taught how to deal with aspects of performing like stage fright, physical presentation and concert planning.

The students are expected to either compose or adapt a song for their final project that is connected to one of the scientific focuses they’ve learned about in the course. The purpose of this is to show that music helps to cement knowledge in the students’ minds more effectively than just reading from a textbook.

Second-year animal science and management major Jack Merwin said the class has helped him retain knowledge he might not have been able to remember if he were in a normal science class.

“Science and music are two different worlds, but in this class they come together in a very cool and weird way,” Merwin said. “I think it’s interesting to see that by learning to play music intertwined with science facts not only allows the performers to learn this information, but allows the audience [that is listening] to learn too. When a song gets stuck in their head they’re forcing themselves to learn those lyrics, thus learning those facts.”

The class is also considered unique because it brings together students from different disciplines that might not otherwise collaborate in day-to-day life. Students are encouraged to share their unique talents and skills, whether they are scientific or artistic, in order see the benefits of both academic disciplines.

Third-year ethnomusicology graduate student and SAS 42 teaching assistant, Sarah Messbauer, said she also has a passion for science and that she wants to encourage students to venture outside of their comfort zone with this course.

“It’s really important to work across disciplines and learn how to think outside of the box no matter what field you’re in,” Messbauer said. “Life isn’t in these neat little categories, life is all mixed up, so the more that you’re able to make connections across fields, the better off you’ll be in life.”

The course will have its final project showcase on March 14 in the Nelson Gallery. The show will consist of students’ original and adapted compositions and will cover the scientific topics they’ve discussed during the quarter. The show starts at 7 p.m. and admission is free.