Now in its 23rd year, the exorbitantly energetic, fiercely entertaining cultural show put on by the Indian American Student Association (IASA) ranks among the most iconic of University experiences. Like painting "The Rock" and attending a game at the Big House, watching the IASA show — the biggest student-run production in the country, according to its coordinators — should be an essential part of the University curriculum.

The performance, boasting 250 participants this year, is an annual showcase of Indian culture through song and dance. Tomorrow’s show, titled “Samasti,” is paired with the thematically significant tagline “Elements of Illusion.”

“We wanted to portray how the different styles and dances of India represent the many cultures in India and how they all come together as one to form the overall national identity,” said Engineering senior Rohan Agarwal, the show's co-coordinator alongside LSA senior Nina Davuluri. “And we thought that using elements kind of as a metaphor would help describe that whole process.”

For the uninitiated, India is about as culturally diverse as some entire continents. The country has more than 20 distinct regional languages, several major religions and dozens upon dozens of unique ethnic groups. Native Hindi speakers from Delhi could take a trip to the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, where the dominant language is Telugu, and find themselves unable to read signs or communicate with the locals.

States in southern India even have their own booming film industries with songs and styles very distinct from those of Bollywood, the Hindi film industry based in Bombay. Accordingly, the IASA show includes a South Indian dance, featuring songs from those industries. Other dances drawn from specific subcultures include Bhangra, a dance native to the northern region of Punjab, and Raas, a dance from the region of Gujrat that uses sticks called “dhandia” that the dancers twirl and bang together.

“(Raas relies) heavily on formation — it’s a very energetic dance that requires precision,” Agarwal said. “It all depends on the partner and the hitting of the dhandia. (The dancers) are never still in dancing, always moving from one formation to another, or around their partner and back and forth.”

More returning favorites to “Samasti” include the sultry, seductive Gypsy dance; the Bollywood dance, which uses popular songs and dances from the Bombay film industry; and Village, a traditional dance that represents the customs of rural India. The all-girl Classical dance, which is choreographed with ancient Indian dances styles, is also back. But this time, the dance has been tweaked to make it more accessible.

“In this year’s Classical they are blending more modern, mainstream songs than just the classical songs,” Davuluri said. “There’s a Bollywood song in there and American songs in there, so it makes it easier to interact with the audience.”

“Samasti” features the addition of two new dances, titled "Fusion" and "Elements."

“The Elements dance was sparked by the theme. … People wanted to do a fire-themed dance, so we decided to turn it into to a dance that would incorporate all the elements, which worked out really well,” Davuluri said.

The dance features songs that make reference to the four classical elements: air, water, earth and fire. Earth, for instance, is represented by a thunderous bhangra dance and fire by a passionate, highly vivacious routine.

Each dance is performed to a medley of songs, and the choreographers of the brand-new Fusion dance decided to mix up their selection, choosing songs from bhangra, Bollywood and American hip hop. Fusion embodies the flattening of the world and the subsequent blending of American and Indian culture.