Navatatri Preparations: Gujaratis honing dancing skills in Visakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam: Navratri fever has already set its foot in the port city. Garba enthusiasts, be it kids or couples have started learning Garba - a dance form originated from Gujarat.

With Garba going to be the flavour of Navratri, the dance lovers have started attending classes post work and college.

For Rashi Jain, an entrepreneur, who has been conducting workshops since the last three years, says, "Most people take-up early garba classes because it needs a lot of practice and also, synchronisation matters. The city-based Rajasthani and Gujarati communities conduct title competitions like dandiya - king and dandiya-queen every year. Well, I have won the title 'dandiya queen' twice."

When asked about the current trend this year, the dandiya queen responds, "Traditional Gujarati Garba has always been regal since ages, other than that this year there's Bollywood -garba, couple- garba and salsa -Garba are added newly."

Talking about what is on demand, Rashi adds,"I will coach women and kids but surprisingly this year the number of participants from young boys are increased than last year. Besides that, I coach them right from basics to advance level authentic garba." She further adds," There are 32 forms and the core style includes Rass, Popat, Dodhiya, Tittodo, Ek taali, Be taali, Traan taali, Hudo, Bollywood Garba, couple Garba and many more styles this year."

Talking about salsa-garba, she says, "It's a new form of dance where you have a mix garba steps with a tinge flavour of salsa. This dance form is meant for couples and proper co-ordination required step by step to ace it and one should master basic steps to learn this form of the dance."

Moreover, disco dandiya is also seemed to be a new trend among youth. "During dandiya nights at times the resident -Dj mixes EDM beats with a bollywood track, for example, Dhol Baje song and David Gueta beats, so being a dance lover I often do b-boying steps to match the beats," says Rahul Jain.

For Shital Jain, a college student from the city says,"Garba is performed in a huge group. One must understand the sync and dance accordingly, that's why we take early classes. Moreover, all of us wait the whole year for this dandiya night, to present ourselves well. Be it with our 'chaniya' choli or dandiya moves."