Garba!

Ever since watching the umpteenth Cheetah Girls movie, you know, the one where they go to an India where nothing bad ever happens and everything is clean and nice, I've been enthralled with Bollywood. Not to the point where I watch Bollywood movies and eat Indian food and all that jazz, but enough to jump around in my room every once in awhile and "twist the lightbulb" in an attempt to Bollywood dance and watch Billu Barber once on an airplane. So, when the opportunity came for me to join in on a huge Indian dance party, I naturally jumped at the chance.

Cue Garba this past Saturday. I have an awesome Indian friend who let me borrow the most beautiful Indian costume and helped me pin my scarfy thing that probably has an Indian name. Then I have another awesome Indian friend who gave me a bindi (head dot) to wear. When all were outfitted, we paraded over to the Student Center to join the party. There were beautiful Indian people everywhere. Seriously. Beautiful. I couldn't stop gawking at all of the gorgeous clothes and jewelry. Per usual, many pictures were taken before we headed into the ballroom. The format of Garba was threefold: first were the circle dances, where everyone that knew the steps danced around in a big circle, second were the stick dances, where you hit your special dancing sticks that have Indian names together, and third was the Bollywood dance, where everyone lets loose. I tried to jump into the circle dances every once and a while, when the steps were easy enough for me to pick up on. The sticks (called dandiya. Thanks, Wikipedia) were fun, too, and our group got to dance in a big circle together. And then, Bollywood. It was amazing. My tactic was to watch the most Indian looking people and try to imitate their feet, hand, and shoulder movements. Apparently, I wasn't too shabby, because at one point I was pushed into the middle of a circle of Indian guys, started doing my best trying to copy them, and they were all quite impressed. After making my exit, one even came up to me and said "Dat vas sooo good!" New calling? I think so.