examples ideas

GARBA

Garba is a circular dance around a pot, performed for devotional and social purposes. There are several different types and styles of garba. The dances take place during the day and at night.

RAAS

Stick Dance

The Raas is a dance played with sticks, known as Dandiya. The players face each other and click their sticks with each other in defined movements and move onto the next facing player

NAVRATRI

Devotional Festival

Navratri is a nine day and night spiritual and devotional festival which occurs four times a year. The festival is held in praise and worship of Hindu mother goddesses and celebrates the power of Shakti.

SHAKTI

The Divine Femminine

Shakti is the power of the divine femminine and during Navratri the three main powers worshipped are of the Goddesses,  Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati

FASHION

The men and women dancers dress ornately and these glittering garments are vibrant and full of colour

ORIGINS

The dances have very ancient origins and were devolved as a simpler form of classical dance and so  were   suitable for dancing by most people. The raas dance draws inspiration from the Raas Leela of the divine Krsna with Radha and the Gopis of Braj.

MUSIC

The songs played at these dances have a mainly devotional substance though there are also songs which have social and domestic themes