Algonquin College student brings bhangra to Ottawa

In December 2023, Jaideep Singh moved to Ottawa from India, bringing with him a fiery passion for the traditional folk dance, bhangra.

“I know that there are a lot of people who want to learn this, but they don’t have a good teacher here,” says Jaideep Singh, who studies business at Algonquin College. “I have teaching experience also, so there was a thought in my mind to make a new team who can represent Ottawa worldwide.”

The energetic and fast-paced dance originates from Punjab, India, and is ideally performed with live singing to a beat played on a drum called a dhol.

Jaideep Singh held a practice for his team on March 2 in room A1821. He has been rehearsing a dance with his team for the past two and a half months.

The team practises with head coverings as a sign of respect to the art form and barefoot to show respect to the stage.

“This is the first team in Ottawa (with live music),” says Jaideep Singh. “We don’t have any other team in Ottawa. We have in Brampton, we have in Surrey, we have in Vancouver. Canada, we have only 10 to 12 teams here.”

Now, he wants to offer basic drop-in classes to Algonquin College students, which he says will start “very soon.”

The club, called AC Bhangra, is open to students of all cultures. Family and friends outside of the college are also welcome to join, as long as 75 per cent of the members are AC students, according to Jaideep Singh.

“We can create our own club that would be in a good area, a good place, where people can learn this dance form,” says Jaideep Singh.

Students interested in joining AC Bhangra can check out the club on Instagram and the Students’ Association’s website.

Jaideep Singh is 21, but he’s been dancing since he was five or six years old, participating in school performances in his small village of Baba Bakala Sahib, in Punjab, India.

“My teacher would always tell me, ‘You want to perform, you have to perform, you are a good dancer, you have to learn’, ” says Jaideep Singh.

After Grade 12, he started dancing professionally and became a bhangra teacher.

Jaideep Singh highlights bhangra’s history, stating that bhangra was first performed in Sialkot, (now located in Pakistan,) but its roots lie in Punjab, India.

“People perform this on the occasion of Vaisakhi to show their happiness,” he says.

Vaisakhi takes place in mid-April and marks the beginning of the spring harvest season, although Jaideep Singh is not sure when his team’s first performance will be.

Chehakpreet Singh, an Algonquin College graduate, is the team’s singer. About five years ago, he moved to Ottawa from Punjab to study electrical engineering.

“When I was in school, I used to sing with my friends, and they were the first who said to me I can be a good singer,” says Chehakpreet Singh. “I’m not a professional, to be honest. It’s just my hobby.”

Chehakpreet Singh has written music and sung at parties and family functions, although he admits he is not the best dancer.

Khushpreet Kaur, a graduate of Carleton University, has danced bhangra at weddings and ceremonies, but wanted to improve her skills. She found Jaideep Singh’s bhangra team through friends.

“I wasn’t a professional, but I like the way (Jaideep Singh) explains each step, how we can do it from scratch and how we can clean the moves,” says Kaur. “Because I can do some moves, it’s fine, but it’s basically how perfectly you can do the moves.”

Jaideep Singh hopes to see his team perform at the Flower City Bhangra Competition in Brampton, Ont., which he says is one of the biggest bhangra competitions in the world.

“It will take almost one to two years for them to get ready for that competition,” says Jaideep Singh.

But he believes with hard work, his team will get there.

“Luckily I got this amazing team, these teammates,” says Jaideep Singh. “They are very good and they are helping me to create my vision in real life. They are making my dreams turn real.”