Dandiya nite (Diwali follow-up)

Last Sunday, after writing the post on Diwali, I decided to attend the celebration organized by the Indian Association at the Hopkins campus in the evening. It was a great experience and I had a lot of fun. Most of the people there were Indian students at JHU and some of them were accompanied by family and friends.

The gathering was organized in one of the university pavilions and the stairs leading up to it were nicely decorated with candles, in the spirit of the ‘Deepavali’ tradition.

Once inside, an altar with some figures representing the Indian deities that we talked about in the previous post had been carefully set up. Next to the altar, a beautiful Rangoli, which is a traditional Indian art form of sand painting, had been nicely arranged for display on top of a tablecloth.

All the Indian food at the event was vegetarian. I was told that this was due to the fact that there were statues representing the gods inside the room and you are not supposed to eat meat when this is the case.

After the nice dinner, different performances took place at the center stage. For me, the Punjabi dance was definitely one of the most amazing. They performed a traditional Bhangra dance. Quoting from Wikipedia:

Bhangra is a lively form of music and dance that originated in the Punjab region in South Asia. While it began as a part of harvest festival celebrations, it eventually became a part of weddings, New Year parties, and other important occasions. A Bhangra performance typically contains many energetic stunts. Traditionally, men wear a piece of cloth wrapped around the waist called chaadra, as well as a kurta, which is a long Indian-style shirt, and Pugdee - also known as turbans - to cover their heads. Bhangra lyrics, always sung in the Punjabi language, generally cover social issues such as love, relationships, alcohol, dancing, and marriage. Additionally, there are countless Bhangra songs devoted to Punjabi pride themes and Punjabi heroes. The lyrics are tributes to the rich cultural traditions of the Punjabis. Less serious topics include beautiful ladies with their colorful duppattas, and dancing and drinking in the fields of the Punjab.

I was lucky to find that someone who was present at the time of the performance made this video and uploaded it to youtube, so you can check and judge by yourself:

Once the shows were over, the evening closed with Dandiya, which is apparently a very popular Indian social dance. The basic idea is that lots of people suddenly invade the dance floor and randomly dance with each other hitting a couple of colorful sticks while trying (or, in my case, rather struggling) to keep the beat. Again quoting from Wikipedia:

This dance form is actually the staging of a mock-fight between the Goddess and Mahishasura, the mighty demon-king, and is nicknamed "The Sword Dance". The sticks (dandiyas) of the dance represent the sword of Durga. The women wear traditional dresses such as colorful embroidered choli, ghagra and bandhanidupattas (traditional attire) dazzling with mirror work and heavy jewelry. The Men wear special turbans and kedias, but can range from area to area. The dancers whirl and move their feet and arms in a choreographed manner to the tune of the music with lots of drum beats. The dhol is used as well as complementary percussion instruments such as the dholak, tabla and others. The true dance gets extremely complicated and energetic.

Another video from youtube, also recorded by someone present at the party, should give you an approximate idea of the basic dancing movements: