Splash Biography

ERIN MATSON, a dancing farmer who loves to cook

Major: South Asian Languages and Civili

College/Employer: University of Chicago

Year of Graduation: 2010

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Erin is a fourth year undergraduate at the University of Chicago, majoring in South Asian Languages and Civilizations and minoring in Environmental Studies. She has been dancing on the University's Balle Bhangra dance team for the past two years. For the past two summers, she has worked on small organic vegetable farms in New Hampshire and Illinois. One of her favorite pastimes is dancing bhangra in the fields.

Past Classes

(Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

A482: Bhangra: Indian Tradition, Western Trend in Splash! Fall 2009 (Oct. 03, 2009)

This class with be an active introduction to the hottest competitive dance style on college campuses across the continent: bhangra. What started out as a kind of Punjabi folk dance has been embraced by Western pop culture, influencing and being influenced by hip hop, reggaeton, and other popular music. In this class we will learn briefly about the origins and spread of bhangra dance and music, instrumentation, props, and current college competition scene. Then we will teach some basic bhangra moves and even a little choreography.