The Amador Valley Bollywood ensemble (AVBE) is a new club that will start on March 2nd. The club officers created this club to advocate for more culture on campus.

“Because we have a lot of western ensembles and jazz and that kind of culture here, I really wanted to integrate some Indian culture here and give them something they could relate to and something they could contribute to in a safe space with other people who are interested in the same thing,” said Ananya Venkatachalam, president of the club (‘22).

The club combines singing and music with Bollywood. 

“We were wondering how there was no Bollywood singing club on campus, so it just grew from there. It started off as an idea at first but then we started to realize that it could actually turn out to be successful at school,” said Juhi Malik, the public relations officer of the club(‘22).

The officers hope the club can perform in rallies, like Donversity.

“I would be honored and really grateful if we got to work with the Bollywood bhangra and dance team, which we were asked if we would do by leadership,” said Venkatachalam.

The club had a rocky start in the beginning, mostly because they couldn’t find an adviser.

“At first it was really hard to find an adviser because every teacher at this school contributes so much of their time to clubs and I’m very grateful for that, even if it’s not my club. But trying to find an adviser when already every single teacher is doing several other clubs was tough. But my friends and I managed to pull through and find one,” said Venkatachalam. Their adviser is Manja Benadjaoud, AV French teacher.

The club officers hope this club can be a warm, welcoming place for people who join. 

“I really hope that this is somethings people look forward to every other week to de-stress and also to make new friends. The reason I liked choir so much was because we were like a family and had fun, so I hope I could have that again”” said Venkatachalam.