Sophomore Saumita Rajeevan had a goal: to win a trophy that was bigger than her.
That goal was reached two weeks ago, when GW Raas—an Indian performing arts group—won the Raas All Stars Nationals Competition in Richardson, Texas.
GW Raas defeated six of the top Raas teams in the nation to win the coveted trophy and title, solidifying them as the top Raas team in the country.
“All the teams were lined up on stage, and when they finally announced us as winners we couldn’t believe it,” said Ms. Rajeevan, a captain of the team. “We all ran to the front of the stage. It was a good feeling.”
The 16-member GW Raas team performs a dance closely related to Garba, a folk dance native to Western India. Junior Parth Chauhan, also a captain, said Garba is based on a kind of worship dance for deities, in which dancers dance in a circle and use decorated sticks called dandiyas to maintain a beat.
But while the style of dance is traditional, Raas dancers customize their performances with bright costumes, unique themes and innovative mixes of Garba music. Mr. Chauhan said GW Raas won Nationals this year because of their creative choreography and theme, which was based on the idea of vending machines. In their performance, dancers used a vending machine backdrop with a “Now Vending” sign to select different types of dancers and “vend” each style of dance.
“We also decorated our other props such as dalfis (hand drums) with money signs to represent coins and had huge ‘sold out’ signs that dropped at the last second to signify the end of our dance,” said Ms. Rajeevan. “When creating the mix, we included sound effects such as coins dropping or vending sounds to bring out the theme.”
GW Raas’ journey to Nationals began last spring, when the team committed itself to becoming more competitive this season.
“We wanted to bring GW Raas back to its former glory days,” said Mr. Chauhan.
To reach that goal, GW Raas practiced for four hours a day, 20 hours a week, mostly in GW’s Marvin Center. Mr. Chauhan said the team as a whole has “a passion and hunger for victory.”
“Our members were willing to put in all their time and energy to Raas, and that’s what led us to win at the end,” he said.
GW Raas qualified for Nationals by placing second at the Miami Mayhem Intercollegiate Garba/Raas competition in March. Teams only earn points by placing third or higher, so GW Raas needed to place at least second in the Miami competition out of eight teams to make Nationals. They had previously placed third at Maryland Masti 2012 and second at Raas Rodeo 2012 in Austin.
“Miami is hardest, as only top teams are invited,” said Mr. Chauhan. “We had to win first or second place to guarantee a spot in Nationals.”
At Nationals, GW Raas had only six minutes to impress a panel of judges in Dallas’ Eisemann Center. But the crowd loved them. Mr. Chauhan said the audience enjoyed their vending machine theme and the team fed off their energy.
“That was a great experience, having hundreds cheer and yell for us,” he said.
Although Nationals is highly competitive, the Raas teams have an enormous amount of respect for one another, said Ms. Rajeevan. There are 40 Raas teams competing each year around the nation.
“Our biggest rivals are University of Maryland and Boston University, but everyone cheers for each other,” she said. “Teams are very close.”
This camaraderie is one of Mr. Chauhan’s favorite parts of the sport.
“You are all linked to each other through the dance,” he said. “It’s pretty much like a fraternity across the country.”
For Ms. Rajeevan, a former classical dancer, it’s the team aspect that keeps her on GW Raas.
“As a classical dancer, I would be on stage by myself. Being on the Raas team is a completely different experience because you feed off the energy of other people,” she said. “I also enjoy practices. Even though they are hours long, when you’re with your team, the time flies by.”
With the amount of travel GW Raas has done this season, Ms. Rajeevan and Mr. Chauhan said the team is constantly holding fundraisers as well as performing at weddings to pay for transportation.
They said their trip to Nationals wouldn’t have been possible without the financial support of the Student Association and the Multicultural Student Services Center.
“We each pay about $800 out of pocket for competitions,” said Mr. Chauhan. “Nationals wouldn’t have been possible without SA and MSSC so we’re really thankful to both groups.”
The future looks bright for GW Raas. They won last Thursday’s REPRESENT dance competition at GW’s Lisner Auditorium and will perform at Wednesday’s Excellence in Student Life Awards ceremony. Mr. Chauhan said the team was also contacted by a Smithsonian Museum researcher to be part of an upcoming South Asia cultural exhibit.
The team will also stay busy performing at this summer’s Colonial Inauguration and other events to help promote GW Raas, said Mr. Chauhan. But the Nationals win will stay with team members for quite a while.
“We put in a year’s worth of work, made it to Nationals and actually won,” he said. “We won the biggest competition of it all.”