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Like every year, North South University celebrated the arrival of Falgun with a festival that involved Pitha Utshab, dancing, and singing performances hosted by North South University Shangskritik Shangathan. NSUSS was founded in 1994 and has been hosting Boshonto, Baishakh, and many other festivals to make the campus lively during these occasions.
This year's event was observed on 15th February 2024 and consisted of flashmob, cultural dances, NSU band performances, and selling delicacies and other items. It ended with a concert by Warfaze.
Usually, the flashmob of NSU Boshonto goes viral for its phenomenal performance. However, a misguided incident has shaken social media and made the event the talk of the town for the wrong reason.
One of the dances focused on onerous dance steps, such as doing stunts, standing on a stick, or balancing a stick between two people. The controversial dance step involved a person crawling between the legs of a group of people.
Before anything, let's hear what the choreographer of the flashmob shared with this writer, "I was inspired by Dance Bangla Dance to perform this particular dance step. The ethical song, 'Mokor Porobe Modna Chora Dhamse Bajaise,' required me to showcase tribal dance steps, not easy or basic dance moves."
The choreographer is a student of North South University, and he is the one who executed the dance step in hopes of people appreciating him for being able to conduct it without being physically harmed.
"This was a really difficult task, like all the other dance steps in that song. While doing the step, everyone was curious to know if I could crawl out safely without getting stepped on, and everyone cheered as soon as I came out. Due to the surface being rough and the dancers moving constantly, it took a lot of effort," said the Fall 2019 batch of BBA Department student.
He added, "We were constantly practising for months to entertain the people only to get mocked by those for whom we did it. People give me looks and ridicule me both in university and the streets; it took a severe toll on my mental health."
Nasir Ahmad, an alumnus of NSU, protested, “The culture of Boshonto was misrepresented by such dance steps. This embarrassing incident has made the university and the people associated with the university a laughing stock.”
“Whatever happened cannot be fixed but such events should be carried out with caution in the future,” said the CSE graduate who is currently working as a remote cloud infrastructure engineer at Red Hat.
The opposing views partitioned people who viewed it as admirable and the people who viewed it as a deplorable act.
"The move was supposed to be a creative stunt performed by a student of ours. There were thousands of people watching the performance live, and many of them did not even think wrongly about it. Still, when it came in the form of a funny video, our execution failed completely," posted the Vice President of NSUSS, Rizwanul Afraim, on their official page.
He continued, "I will also ensure that there will be more strict screening before showing any performance before the audience. We are always open to any type of suggestions and also encourage ideas."
This incident overshadowed the other students' commendable performances, which deserved appreciation.
Even after taking accountability, people have not stopped creating different memes regarding the situation, which continues to affect the organisation's reputation despite its countless previous successful events.
"The entire event was well organised and enjoyable. However, all it took was that 20 seconds to ruin the vibe," observed Fatema Dukter, a current student of NSU of BMD Department.
The 10th-semester student clarified, "This kind of dance step was inappropriate for this function. There is a time and place for everything. Creativity is okay, but it seemed indecent in a cultural program like this."
Viewers are left disappointed by this one action, which the performers initially did not think was inappropriate and were rather enthusiastic to demonstrate their prowess as dancers. NSUSS is preparing to win hearts through their next event.
Pictures taken by Signature Shotz.