Garba (dance) - Dance

Dance

Modern garba is also heavily influenced by Ḍānḍīyā Raas (Gujarātī: ડાંડીયા), a dance traditionally performed by men. The merger of these two dances has formed the high-energy dance that is seen today.

Both men and women usually wear colorful costumes while performing garba and dandiya. The girls and the women wear Chaniya choli, a three-piece dress with a choli, which is an embroidered and colorful blouse, teamed with chaniya, which is the flared, skirt-like bottom, and dupatta, which is usually worn in the traditional Gujarati manner. Chaniya Cholis are decorated with beads, shells, mirrors, stars, and embroidery work, mati, etc. Traditionally, women adorn themselves with jhumkas (large traditional earrings), necklaces, bindi, bajubandh, chudas and kangans, kamarbandh, payal, and mojiris. Boys and men wear kafni pyjamas with a kediyu - a short round kurta - above the knees and pagadi on the head with bandhini dupatta, kada, and mojiris.

There is a huge interest in Garba among the youth of India and in particular, the Gujarati diaspora. Garba and Dandiya Raas are also popular in the United States where more than 20 universities have Raas Garba competitions on a huge scale every year with professional choreography. Garba is also very popular in the United Kingdom where there are a number of Gujarati communities who hold their own garba nights. It is widely popular among the Gujarati community even in Canada, where the largest navratri festival in North America is held annually in Toronto. They say "Ae Hallo" for fun, which means "Come on! Lets start!"