Although Ashoka’s Diwali Cultural performance is over, the show’s Raas dance team has continued to rehearse and perform.

The months of work team members contributed to the dance culminated in a third-place finish this past Saturday at the Dandia Dhamaka Raas competition.

Dandia Dhamaka was one of the first national Raas competitions. There are now almost 10.

Raas is a traditional Indian folk dance associated with India’s Gujarat state. Of the 30 teams that applied to compete in the event, 10 teams, including the University’s, were chosen to compete.

The team was composed of 16 dancers, including three choreographers. The choreographers, senior Madhvi Shah, senior Kushal Patel and junior Naitik Bhatt, have all participated in the competition in previous years.

The University’s team has placed in seven of the nine years that the Dandia Dhamaka competition has existed. After learning it was in the top 10, the team wanted to compete soon before the big competition but could not due to lack of funding.

“It kind of sucks that we could not work anything out,” said Patel, a senior, “but it is not that they [Student Union] don’t value us.” Student Union approved funding for the team to travel to New York for the Rockefeller Raas competition, but the team has since decided not to attend.

The dancers who participated in Diwali were given first preference when the competitive team was formed.

According to the choreographers, most of the team members graduated two years ago. The team had to be rebuilt with new dancers for the previous competitive season. The team had a difficult time recovering from the dancer turnover.

“We had a two-year drought in terms of placing,” said Shah, a senior. The team did not place in the past two years of the competition. In the months leading up to Diwali, the team rehearsed for several hours four times a week. There were no practices in December or between semesters. For the three weeks after winter break before the competition, the team rehearsed its seven-minute dance seven days a week.

The team became very close after spending so much time together.

“We are kind of like a family,” Patel said.

Students participate in the dance as a cultural activity. “It gives an opportunity to Indians who have never been in touch with the culture before,” Patel said. According to Bhatt, prospective University students around the country know about the Raas team and it attracts students to the school. “Not only do we spread Wash. U.’s name. It gives Wash. U. a culturally-diverse image,” Bhatt said.

For the Dandia Dhamaka Competition, at least 80 percent of team members must be undergraduates. This year a recent Washington University graduate was a dancer on the team.

“Alums will always stay connected with the team,” Bhatt said. Graduates often come back to coach the team and cheer them on at competition. Shah and Patel, who will be graduating this May, plan to attend Dandia Dhamaka next winter. The choreographers expect the University’s team to be a continuing presence in the world of competitive Raas.

“We are definitely in the top three competitive teams in the United States,” Shah said.

1 Comments

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  On August 19, 2009 at 10:13 am Onenight2shine said

  We would like to get the contact information for the Raas Team to contact them to come to our event

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Tags: ashoka, Raas

This entry was posted on Friday, February 13th, 2009 at 9:42 pm and is filed under Campus Events, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through this feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.