麻豆传媒

A smartphone, a good location and a few dance moves: that鈥檚 all it took for Hasmeet Singh Chandok鈥檚 Maritime Bhangra Group to capture the world鈥檚 attention.

Ever since a video the group made at Peggy鈥檚 Cove last fall went viral鈥攙iewed millions of times around the world鈥攕everal organizations have offered the dance group extra resources, but Chandok says there鈥檚 a reason they still shoot all their performances on an iPhone.

鈥淚 want to give out this message to people that if you want to bring change, you can鈥檛 complain that you didn鈥檛 have enough resources,鈥� says Chandok, a Computer Science master鈥檚 student from India. 鈥淚f you want to do it, just do it.鈥� Chandok began organizing Bhangra dance performances for events within the Dal community a few years ago through the Sikh Student Association鈥攁 student group he started with his brother, Kunwardeep (a Dal alum), to raise awareness about Sikh religion and culture on campus. Noticing the popularity of the performances, Chandok decided last summer to form a dedicated dance group to carry their message of tolerance and change to a wider audience. That鈥檚 exactly what Maritime Bhangra Group has done.

The group has produced several follow-up videos since the Peggy鈥檚 Cove breakout hit, including one featuring federal cabinet ministers. The segments typically start with 40 to 50 seconds of dancing followed by a message to raise awareness about different causes from prostate cancer to the neurodegenerative disease ALS. 鈥淲hen people share these videos, they are not sharing just a dance,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey are sharing a social responsibility of raising awareness about important causes.鈥�