What do Taco Bell and firetrucks have in common? They ended up as the theme for two of the competing raas teams’ dances. On February 27, I went to Raas Rave and Bhangra Blitz or R2B2, an annual dance competition hosted by the Indian Student Association at SMU. My experience and knowledge of Indian dances are limited to ISA’s Diwali shows, so that became my expectation walking in. To my surprise, the competition did not simply consist of college students performing old-school cultural dances, but each team had taken some creative licensing to add extra flair and modern influence to their routines.

Now what exactly are raas and bhangra? Raas is a dance originating from the state of Gujarat. It is a popular dance throughout India and not just the state of Gujarat, and it is specially performed at the Navratri festival which celebrates Mata Ambe, the Mother Goddess. Raas is characterized by the colorful attire and sticks and, the competing teams wore colorful matching outfits that were adorned with what appears to be tiny mirrors or reflective buttons. (Also I’m slightly jealous of those awesome twirling stick abilities.)

Bhangra is a dance from the Punjab, and the term covers several types of dances originating in the Punjabi region. It is speculated that the dance originated with farmers in the Punjabi region which was performed in festivals and quickly spread through the social classes and divisions. For bhangra, the teams wore Punjabi outfits. Unlike the outfits of the raas dancers, the bhangra dancers’ outfits were color coded with the men and women paired up wearing the same color. The most notable features of the outfits, I thought, were the men’s turbans which had something that looked like a fan on top of them.

While I expected the color and upbeat music at the competition, what I did not expect was the amount of creativity that made each team’s dance unique and fun. I really enjoyed each routine and got a good laugh out of the introduction videos. Unfortunately, I was stuck behind the bars of the ticketing window selling tickets during the first couple routines and did not get to see how awesome they were.

Since I was at the ticket window for around an hour and a half, I got to watch people file into McFarlin Auditorium to watch the show. I was surprised to see how many people had come to watch the competition. There seemed to be an endless amount of people in the lobby area waiting to get their wristbands to go inside. Also there was one group who had 35 general admission tickets at will call—thirty-five people in one group is a lot…

I don’t know why I hadn’t been to R2B2 before (I was probably too lazy to make the commute to campus), but it was definitely an amazing experience. The atmosphere and music were fun, and overall everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Kudos to the R2B2 board and ISA for putting on an awesome show!

 

http://www.indianmirror.com/dance/dandiya.html

http://www.punjabonline.com/servlet/library.history?Action=Bhangra