Raas Royalty XV (RRXV), an Indian Garba and Raas dance competition hosted by IU club Raas Royalty, will take place with free admission at 5 p.m. on Saturday in the IU Auditorium. IU students founded Raas Royalty in 2010 and hosts eight collegiate Raas dance teams which compete for a bid to the Raas All Star National Competition.
Raas Royalty is the only free Garba-Raas dance competition in the United States. This year’s theme is “Camp Royalty” and will feature dance teams from Purdue University, University of California San Diego, The George Washington University, Virginia Tech, Michigan State University, University of California Los Angeles and University of Chicago.
On Raas Royalty’s site, it states it's mission to share Indian culture with the community through their passion of traditional dance at the yearly competition. Students may apply to be freshman representatives on the board to plan the yearly dance competition or be a liaison to communicate with the visiting teams.
Raas Royalty is a completely student-run organization, from the competition judges to public relation chairs. They spend the year raising money to fund the annual competition. Rass Royalty XV’s directors are juniors Shivani Vyas, Nitya Shah, Anvitha Vadlamudi and Anisa Patel.
Garba and Raas are traditional forms of dance which originated from Gujarat: a state on the Western coast of India. The dances are traditionally performed during the nine-day Hindu festival, Navratri.
The event is free and open to the public.
