Starting off after a modest 45-minute delay to a packed Rotunda, Desert Duels, a solo dance face-off, promised to be a riveting affair. Nine dancers from colleges spread across the country battled each other over three rounds. The anchors emphasised repeatedly that the contestants would not be eliminated after successive rounds, rather the cumulative scores from all three rounds would declare the winner.

For the first round, participants were asked to reproduce what they had performed for the elimination round. They were given free reign over their choice of dance style and use of props– should they require any. With all the contestants playing to their strengths, the audience witnessed a wide variety of dance forms, from contemporary and hip-hop to Bollywood and belly-dance. Meenal from St. Xaviers was the only artist performing classical. Dressed in traditional attire, her performance was well received by the audience. Lakshman’s contemporary and Siddart’s ‘locking and popping’ performances were also widely applauded.

The second round was theme based. Each contestant was assigned a theme on spot through a draw of lots. The contestants were given fifteen minutes to prepare and were expected to base their perofrmance around the said theme, which they did to varying levels of success. While Piyush and Lokesh failed to deliver their themes fully, Akshay’s performance based on the theme, ‘mirror’ stood out. Using the‘mirror’ to look back on his childhood, his contemporary performance took everyone present by the storm. Sagar’s dance to the song Fitoor which conveyed ‘obsession’ was also well received.

The third round, dubbed as ‘Last Man Standing’, had the participants grouped in trios. Battling against the other members of their group, contestants were eliminated one after another until a single dancer remained. To judge the contestant’s adaptability to diverse dance forms, abrupt changes to the background music were made at times, some to humourous effects. It was finally Shivangi, Sagar and Akshay who made it to the final round, wherein Shivangi finally prevailed.