Amador Valley’s Bollywood Team, also known as Dhamaka, performed at the annual Dil Se showcase at Irvington High School on Saturday, Feb. 11 after weeks of preparation.

Dhamaka was originally created in 2016 as a bhangra (a traditional folk dance of Punjab) team to perform in school rallies, but has evolved into a Bollywood fusion dance club that performs around the Bay Area.

“Throughout the years, more Bollywood songs started to get popular, so we started to do more of those songs, but still incorporated bhangra and the things we used to do before. For example, we had a chant, (something) we’ve been doing for a long time,” said dance captain Aadhya Pai (‘25).

The team stunned crowds  at Dil Se, an annual event for which teams all over the Bay Area had to try out, with only 20 groups selected to perform.

“Amador has never made it as a full co-ed team; they have only ever made it in with five people back in 2019, so getting in as a 25 person team was a huge deal this year, and, especially as captain, it felt great that all our hard work had paid off,” said team captain Dhwani Shetty (‘23).

With tickets for both the day and night show  selling out in under six minutes, Amador Dhamaka practices increased to 3 a week to perform at their best.

“The four captains just made choreography and we started teaching it to our team, who learned it quite fast. We just spent a lot of time cleaning and preparing for auditions, working 3 hours each practice with multiple practices each week,” said Pai.

Captains had to arrange new choreography, costumes, and formations within six weeks, while also preparing for Amador Valley’s Donversity Rally. Before a crowd of 600 at Dil Se, Dhamaka had to make a big impression as the opening act.

“We’re really happy with what we did there and felt very prepared. The environment was really nice and the crowd was crazy, (so) it brought a lot of energy,” said dancer Arnav Dhole (‘25).