Over 1,000 expat Indians attired in traditional dresses decorated with shiny glass panels, danced to the rhythmic beats of drums at the Dandiya Raas 2008 held in the Wonderland theme water park near Al Garhoud on Friday night to celebrate the Navratri festival.
The festival is an annual event in India to celebrate the victory of good over evil. Indian expats in Dubai have been celebrating the event here since the 1960s.
Although most of the participants were from western Indian state of Gujarat where Dandiya folk dance is a passion, there were people from other Indian states as well.
“I have been in Dubai for the past 15 years and joined the celebrations of Indian festivals such as this,'' said Harmeet Singh Oberoi, an architect from the northern Indian state of Punjab who came with his family.
Siddharth Chomal, a trader from Rajasthan bordering Gujarat state, was another enthusiastic participant at the event with his family.
“We paid Dh30 each to join the festivities but it's worth it,'' said Pawan Khetwani, an electronics company executive, who had brought his family and friend Jai Pamnani.
The event, organised by Warehouse Entertainment, was billed as one of the biggest Dandiya dances in Dubai with 6,000 people expected to turn out.
Jaykar Bhojak, King of Dandiya, from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad and his band of musicians blended the traditional Dandiya tunes and Bollywood cinema music to the delight of men, women and children.
Dubai-based DJ Fini was also on stage playing some popular Dandiya music.
“This is the first time I have led the Dandiya Raas in Dubai and realize how much traditional customs and festivities mean for the expat Indian commuity, particularly the new generation children,'' said the 38-year-old Bhojak, a cultural icon of Gujarat state who has released 100 albums of his dandiya music.
The occasion was also an opportunity for children to learn Dandiya dance which is peformed in clockwise and anti-clockwise directions by groups of people arranged in circles. They either beat a pair of sticks above their heads or clap hands as they dance in circles.
“I am gratified to see young girls learning the Dandiya, thereby keeping a popular Indian folk dance art alive,'' said Bhojak who has earlier performed in Bahrain in 1993.
Bhojak presided over four rounds of Dandiya dances which went into the early hours of Saturday and gave away the prizes.
The top prize was an electric guitar autographed by singer-actor-director Himesh Reshammiya and sponsored by Big Pictures, a subisidary of the Mumbai-based Adlabs Films Limited.
Big Pictures released movie Karzzz directed by Reshammiya was the title sponsor for Dandiya Raas 2008.
