Dandiya of my Dreams

Saturday we went to a Dandyia party hosted by the Gujarati community in Chennai. Dandyia is a dance done during the celebration of the Navratri, a holiday celebrated all around India in the beginning of October. My first experience with dandiya was in high-school. The large Baton Rouge Gujarati community hosted these at the LSU ball room several times during Navratri. Women and men would get dolled up in their finest saris, lengha cholis, and kurta pajamas. The dancing would begin with an intricate and energetic 6-beat dance around the dance floor to drum heavy music. The main event was the dandiya dance. Danced by all, the dance was preformed with wooden sticks in each hand. Dancers tap other dancer's sticks to the music to symbolize the fight between the goddess Durga and a mighty demon king. It is similar to a contra or square dance where two lines of dancers move an opposite direction from each other.

We arrived too early dressed in our best at 9, and met Arvin, the only other person there at the time. Turns out that he just moved back to Chennai after 15 years in the US, mostly in Porter Square, Cambridge. After killing some time getting coffee with him and his friends, we returned at 10:30 and the party really got started. Hundreds of people were pouring from chauffeured cars dressed in the most spectacular costumes. The female children, teenagers, and young women were dressed in elaborate lengha cholis dripping with jewels in their hair, ears, necks, hips, hands, wrists, ankles, and feet. Even the babies were lavishly decorated! The male children, teens, and young men were decked out in what looked like a short baby doll dress with matching dhoti. Now I see why the guys in my high school did not come dressed in traditional garb. Despite looking like they were wearing their younger sister’s dress, this unusual male outfit actually looked very dashing while twirling around the floor later in the night.

The music set up included 4 full drum sets, a keyboard, and a few singers. The first dance is the garba which is a high energy dance around the perimeter of the dance floor. I know two of this type and did dance for a while. However, just like in high school, once I got the hang of it again, the girls I danced behind switched to one I did not know leaving me there wondering what was going on. (I found out later that they take classes the month prior to the Navratri season.) Around 12:30, there was a dandiya for the teenagers and children. I suspect this was separate because the older teens and young adults get overly enthusiastic with the dandyia sticks. I'll bet that dancing with the kids caused many a gossipy mother to whisper next to her and say “can you imaging that grown woman, dancing with the children!” in scorn. Of all our time traveling, this was the first night I had to go to bed early since I was scheduled to deliver a lecture in the morning.

I had a fabulous time dancing with the kids and teenagers and ended up chatting with many. No one could talk for long though. They had to dance their best. There was a white-haired man in an all white kutra wandering among the dancers with a clipboard. In the center of a dancing hurricane, he looked like a bored judge at a dog show. I found out from them that he was the judge for the prize of king, queen, prince and princess of the festival. They are also judged on their costumes and dancing. Prizes range from a TV or DVD player to a 17,000 Rs ($450).

A nice woman we met emailed me some pictures I just posted on Flickr. We have not seen anything like this in India – where the men, women, and children are all free to enjoy themselves at the same time. In this nearly dry town, it was also the most memorable night out we have had without booze in awhile.

- Nisha