The Importance Of Indian Dance

In countries like India where dance is valued for its rich cultural significance, it is important that people get to share their love and passion for dance, no matter which form. Many Indian dance forms are influenced mainly through the Hindu religion or films. The most common Indian forms of dance include Bollywood, Bharatanatyam, Kathakali, and Raas Garba. Luckily for Indian Americans across the nation, many colleges have Indian dance teams on campus providing an outlet for them to showcase their work, including the University of California, Riverside. One team on campus that stands out above the rest is a competing Raas Garba team known as UCRaas. Raas Garba is a traditional folk dance, originating from the state of Gujarat in western India,

Traditional steps such as one-two-threes and hops are common for movement around stage. These steps compose of most of the footwork in the routine and it is compulsory for each dancer to master these steps while achieving high knees. Next comes the twirling and snapping of the dandiyas, which is extremely important since Dandiya Raas is half of the routine. Dropping a dandiya can be the difference between winning and losing so it is important that dancers are able to balance the necessary handwork while maintaining the correct footwork.

They say that in Raas, your arms and legs are not the only thing that matters when it comes to mastering your dance moves, but also your head movement and expressions. Expressions and bobbling on stage show one’s enthusiasm and energy, which adds to the whole dynamic of a Raas performance. Practicing expressions and bobbling also happens at each practice because it is crucial that it becomes muscle memory to the dancers. For people to excel during tryouts, it would be essential for them to be able to show emotion in their

At the end of each practice, the blood, sweat, and tears are visible as each member chugs down their bottle of water, limps in pain with ice on their shins, or wipes of the drops of sweat off of their foreheads. Through it all, they all come back together to end their practice with a motivational speech and a team chant. Heads turn every time the mighty roar of UC Raas is heard yelling, “Whose Side? UCRaas