Dancing Away the Nights

Navratri is here and all with a keen enthusiasm for dancing are getting together their finery, special costumes, and jewellery ready. The many talented performers who are often hired for these celebrations too are preparing themselves to lead large groups in celebratory dancing this year. While Navratri pandals are famous all across the major cities in India, a little known fact is that Indian expats dance their way through these nine days with equal fervour!

To lead these celebrations, entire dance troupes or Raas Mandali's are hired to come out to major cities across the globe to perform the traditional Raas Garba (social dancing). Enter an enterprising cowherd from a small town in Gujarat. At home Karnabhai Bharwad is a milk seller. Yet during Navratri he moonlights as a traditional dancer. His Raas Mandali is a troupe of rural lads like himself. Twenty-five dance artists and musicians make up the Shaktipara Raas Mandli. Describing the Raas Garba as a legacy inherited from their ancestors, they get together to take art beyond the boundaries their homes.



Raas Garba or social dancing is a unique art form in India. Traditionally, a lamp (the Garba Deep)is lit in the middle of the concentric rings. Beautifully adorned women and men in traditional costumes dance around the lamp clapping rhythmically. At every step they gracefully bend sideways, the arms coming together in sweeping gestures, up and down, left and right, each movement ending in clap.

If you have friends from India or hear of a temple in your town hosting the Garba - do go. The sheer energy, enthusiasm, and colour of the occasion is a treat for the senses!! And who knows, you may just bump into Karnabhai and his dancing troupe there....