{"id":128800,"date":"2023-05-04T09:20:26","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T13:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=128800"},"modified":"2023-05-04T09:24:42","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T13:24:42","slug":"dancing-with-and-under-the-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/dancing-with-and-under-the-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"Dancing with (and Under) the Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s 10 p.m. on a Thursday, and the energy level could not be higher than it is at the very top of parking garage H on Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½\u2019s campus. Feet stomp on the concrete. Wooden sticks (called dandiya<\/em>) clack together. Two dozen students hop, bob and raise their hands to the constellations in synch to a fast-paced musical number. If you pay close enough attention you might notice they\u2019re telling a story with their moves.<\/p>\n

A few surprised officers from the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Police Department<\/a> have come to see what\u2019s going on and, when the music stops, offer applause and a compliment. \u201cYou\u2019re incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apart from competition and special festivals, the rooftop is the best place to see this kind of choreography. It\u2019s called Garba-Raas, or just Raas, and keeps South Asian culture very much alive wherever it\u2019s performed \u2014 in college auditoriums around the country or in a wide-open parking lot at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe go to the top of the garage because we can have it all to ourselves late at night,\u201d says civil engineering student Rushil Patel, former team captain and current member of KnightRaas<\/a>. \u201cThe air is fresher, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½\u2019s KnightRaas team is one of 60 collegiate squads that compete nationwide in a circuit called Raas All-Stars. Among them are the University of Virginia HooRaas, University of Miami SwaggeRaas, and the Georgia Tech Ramblin\u2019 Raas. The Raas All-Stars were founded in 2009 as a way for college students to preserve an important South Asian tradition, which for most of the dancers is embedded in their ancestry.<\/p>\n

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