Chhavi Verg

From a makeshift studio in her parents’ garage to the lavish stage of the Miss USA pageant, Chhavi Verg has danced her way into the shimmer of the American spotlight. 

As she floated across the stage at the Miss USA 2017 competition, her introductory video appeared on the screen. The sound of bells echoed through the stadium. Bright colours of purple and gold swept across the screen, and Chhavi appeared- in an unfamiliar costume to many, but to her, a beloved ensemble. 

Born in Kota, India in 1996, Chhavi immigrated to New Jersey, United States with her family when she was four years old. With a confident spirit at an early age, she developed a passion for dance and its intrinsic relationship with the viewer. On weeknights, she would watch shows like Dancing With the Stars and America’s Next Top Model, spurring the onset of a dream that, one day, she too could perform in front of a nationwide audience. 

Immersed in an American society, she was often surrounded by ballerinas, jazz dancers and hip-hop performers. But her mother, hoping to instill some memory of home, instead enrolled her in classes for Bharatanatyam. 

“My mom was always very adamant about me doing Indian Classical Dance, partially because when we came to the United States, it was a way to preserve our culture,” she says. “My parents would say, ‘We know you’re going to grow up with Americans, we know you’re going to grow up as an American, but we still want you to be close to your roots.”

As a kid, she says, Bharatanatyam was tiring, tough and sometimes quite boring. “Being completely honest with you, I really did not want to learn Indian Classical Dance when I was younger,” she says. It just wasn’t considered, among the kids, to be as “cool” and exciting as other forms. So, as somewhat of a saving grace, her parents also enrolled her in Bollywood classes. The balance between the two styles held her interest and expanded her understanding of dance; Bollywood fuelled her creative groove and Bharatanatyam refined her discipline. 

Although sometimes begrudgingly, Chhavi practiced Bharatanatyam until she turned 16, when it was suggested that she do her arangetram under the guidance of her teacher, Padma Thiagaram. The full preparation took one year, and, being the first classical dancer in her family, Chhavi didn’t know what quite to expect 

Each day she would get out of bed at 6:30 am, go for a two-mile run, come back for breakfast and then practice dance for four hours. It was constant and unforgiving work, and since she couldn’t visit her dance teacher’s house every day, her parents eased the stress by building a makeshift studio at home. They emptied the garage, installed hardwood floors, and up full length mirrors where Chhavi would practice in the heat of the summer sun. 

When the time came to take the stage at Jonathan Dayton High School, she was brimming with anticipation, as she would soon be fully in her element, performing in front of an auditorium full of her family and friends. With six dances on the schedule, being Natyanjali, Oyilaga, Varnam, Radha Kaise Na Jale, and Bho Shambo, she made her initial entrance in a white and red pant suit costume and assumed the stance for her intensive four-hour performance. 

“I remember after the second dance, I got this really bad foot cramp- absolutely awful, right in my heel,” she recalls. “But the thing is, the show must go on, and pushing through that pain, I feel like, has kind of just been consistent with my entire life. Even when things get difficult, you just have to push through them. I couldn’t stop dancing. It was my arangetram, everyone was there.”

She rushed backstage between each dance for quick costume changes- a blue and green sari, a purple and green sari, an orange and red sari, all the while grasping for a sip of water to maintain her stamina. 

As her final dance came to a close, she says, an indescribable feeling washed over her. “It’s just that feeling of accomplishment when you spend years working towards something and you finally finish it. That feeling of achievement and accomplishment…it’s something you take with you throughout your life.”

Chhavi’s dance practice slowed down after her Arangetram, but she revived the passion when she began competing in pageants. She drew parallels between Bharatanatyam and pageantry- in the physical stances, the control of her facial expressions, and most importantly, in her connections with the audience. Although there was no talent competition when she vied for the position of Miss USA 2017, she chose to choreograph her own Bharatanatyam dance for her introductory video- if America was going to see her, they would see her at her best self, performing a dance that rooted her past and revealed her truest passion. 

“[Bharatanatyam is] is something that’s thousands of years old and it’s just so beautiful once you understand it. It’s something that little kids will find difficult to understand, but I would definitely tell them to stick with it, because at least for me, it was the best decision I ever made. I’m so happy I didn’t quit,” she says. “I was always very confident, but after doing my arangetram, there was just this amazing sense of knowing who you are…being comfortable on stage, being comfortable in your own skin.”

Today, Chhavi is a student at Rutgers University in New Jersey and a certified personal trainer. And while there’s no dance or pageant performances looming in the near future, it’s likely that she won’t be out of the spotlight for long.