Garba360 comes to New York

- ADVERTISEMENT -

In an initiative to bring Gujarati arts to new spaces and places, MELA Arts Connect brought Garba360 to New York’s iconic dance party Midsummer Night Swing series at Lincoln Center on Tuesday, July 3.

The Sa Dance Company began the evening with a beautiful performance of traditional Gujarati folk dancing which set the tone for the night.

Though the rain delayed the program, Heena Patel and Rohan Sheth taught more than 500 people the steps to dodhiyu, tran taali garba and even raas on the beats of the band Kashyap Jani and Friends along with DJ Sunny, well into the night.

“It was an incredible feeling to watch the campus of Lincoln Center come alive with the music and dance of my culture,” said Patel, the producer, creator and curator of Garba360.

In addition to the music and Indian outfits, dancing outdoors in the humidity made the evening feel even more like a garba in India.

Garba360 was inaugurated in San Francisco, California at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival on May 19 and their next event will be in Chicago on Aug. 26 as part of Chicago SummerDance Celebrations.