Raas Royalty brings energy to IU Auditorium

The IU Auditorium was filled with loud school chants, banging Dandiyas and vibrant hues of green, blue, yellow and purple.

To get the different schools and the crowd pumped up, one school started off with a shout out: “IU, where you at? Let me see your hands clap!”

Indian dance competition Raas Royalty took place Saturday night in the IU Auditorium with a sizable crowd. Eight Raas dance teams, from as far as University of California-Irvine to as close as Purdue University, competed in a traditional Indian dance.

Even though IU’s own Hoosier Raas, as host, could not compete, they still performed an exhibition act using a bootcamp theme.

Senior Nithin Reddy, the director of Raas Royalty, said the competition derives from a traditional Indian folk dance called Garba, which is a dance from a state in Northwestern India called Gurjarat. Over the years, Raas has evolved from this traditional folk dance to an intercollegiate competition held at different universities across the United States.

“It’s nice to see the generations continue the traditions and cultures of their family,” Reddy said.

Reddy said the dance includes twirling and hitting a pair of sticks, called Dandiyas, together to a rhythmic beat.

“The main aspects are very high energy and partner interaction,” Reddy said.
Reddy said this competition is one of the few in the Midwest and competitions like it take place across the nation, eventually leading up to the Raas All-Stars competition every year.

“There are 13 competitions that are qualifiers for the national competition,” Reddy said. “If you qualify then you have the ability to earn points for the competition at the end of the Raas circuit and compete in Raas All-Stars Competition.”

This year, Raas All-Stars will be held in March in Dallas.

Reddy said the collegiate teams often spend a lot of time practicing their routines in the beginning of the school year. The amount of time the teams practice throughout the year varies from two to five times a week. He said around 30 teams each complete an audition video for the competition, and only a few are chosen from two rounds of judging for IU Raas Royalty. He said that as a second generation Indian American, this event is special to him and other Raas Royalty dancers.

“It’s something that we could take pride in, and it’s fun to see our tradition and culture amongst other people who may not be able to witness it anywhere else,” Reddy said.

IU Raas Royalty donates some of their leftover donations, those not used to put together the competition, to a locally-founded organization called Timmy Global Health Foundation.

“Fundraising is a big part of our organization,” Reddy said. “We do try to keep ourselves involved with charities, so we make sure we donate some of our proceeds to the charity.”

Eric Love, the advisor for Raas Royalty and the director of the Office of Diversity Education, said this event is something you can’t see anywhere else in Indiana.

“The students in Raas Royalty do so much work,” Love said. “They raised over $20,000. They organize the whole thing. It just gets bigger and bigger every year — big like 2,000 people attending. It really has put Indiana University on the map with a high-charged event.”

All of the dance teams had their own themes. In their dances they infused popular hip-hop music such as Kanye West songs and New Boyz, “You’re a Jerk” into the beginning of their percussive traditional Indian rhythms.

The competition commenced with Michigan University’s football-themed dance, which included pom-poms and a huge handmade Jumbotron. They interpreted their own school’s colors, wearing bright, electric blue and yellow.

Even though sports themes were particularly common, throughout the night there were some more creative performances as well. Houston University’s “Roarin’ Raas” team decided to go with a zombie apocalypse storyline and incorporated a “Nightmare/Thriller” dance sequence.

Purdue University danced and twirled with a Wheel of Fortune-themed dance. University of California-Irvine high-kicked to a Monster’s Inc.-inspired routine with decorations of doors in the background.

University of Pittsburgh performed a piece called “Aladdin’s Final Wish” with a dancer dressed in deep purple like the famous Disney character Aladdin.

Trisha Patel, a senior at Ohio State University, said the girls’ outfits are called “chaniya cholis,” and the guys’ pants are called “dhotis.” She said her dance team has been practicing since September and she sees Raas Royalty as good competition amid all the tension.

“Personally, it’s a really fun accomplishment to be here this year because I was here my freshman year, so it’s like we’ve come full circle,” Patel said. “We just want to put on a good show, and at the end of the day, show everyone what we’ve worked on.”

While the judges took time to deliberate on whom should win and get points to possibly head to Nationals, Bindi-ana, an all-female Indian dance group, and InMotion, an IU contemporary dance group, performed for the audience.

In the end, Saint Louis University took home the first-place trophy with their hip-hop and vinyl records routine and scored the most points toward the national competition.
Fallon Baden, a junior, said she absolutely loved the show.

“My favorite part was just seeing all the different personalities in the music and also seeing the modern and the Indian music, just like having those different cuts and the reactions of the audience as well,” Baden said.