Seattle Asian Art Museum, Seattle – Saturday, April 21st – 6:00 PM

Gupshup Opens with dance

Garba is a form of dance that originated in the Gujarat region of India. Many traditional garbas are performed by women of all ages, around a central lit lamp or picture/statues of different avatars of Goddess Shakti. Traditionally it is performed during the nine-day Hindu festival Navarātrī. Modern garba is also heavily influenced by raas (or Dandiya), a dance with sticks, traditionally performed by men. Today’s performance by Nanda’s dance group “Creative Avataars” will be the merger of these two high-energy dances that is more commonly seen in modern-day festivals.

Usually very colorful costumes are worn at garba. The women wear Chaniya Choli, a three-piece dress with a blouse, a flared skirt and dupatta, which is usually worn in the traditional Gujarati manner. These are decorated with beads, shells, mirrors, embroidery, etc.. Men wear kafni-pyjamas or a kediyu which is a short round kurta.

Artists for today’s “Creative Avataars” performance consists of:

Nanda Mehta
Avani Desai
Chi Shen
Lavanya Guhan
Meera Rajsekar
Poonam Kataria
Vidya Guhan

If you are interested in learning raas-garba dance and joining Creative Avataars, please see Nanda after the performance. No experience is necessary – just the desire to dance!

Nanda Mehta Artistic Director & Choreographer
Creative Avataars – 425-747-4961 – garbaclasses@comcast.net