Indo American News

Tag: Raas All-Stars

  • Kalakriti Hosts Raas All Stars IX in Dallas

    Kalakriti Hosts Raas All Stars IX in Dallas

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    Kusum Sharma

    DALLAS: Houston based Kalakriti Performing Arts partnered with Raas All Stars (RAS) to hold the national competition of Garba / RaaS at Eisemann Centre in Richardson, TX on April 15.

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    Raas All-Stars is the National Championship for competitive Garba/Raas wherein teams from colleges and universities around the United States takes part. Over 50 teams compete via Bid Competitions throughout each school year in order to earn points toward RAS, and the top eight teams with the most points at the end of the season receive invitations to compete on the RAAS All Stars stage. RAS mission is to build a community of students through a mutual love of dance, to keep in touch with our traditional culture, and to promote exercise as a supplement to our academic studies. With support from Kalakriti Performing Arts, Raas All-Stars IX was a huge success this year at the Eisemann Center. The winner of this year championship is University of Florida GATORAAS and runner up is University of Houston ROARIN’ RAAS. RAS has already started planning for the 10th anniversary show for April 2018. RAS board of directors thanks all our amazing sponsors who provide us with funds, goods, or services in exchange for marketing outreach to the South Asian youth in the US today. You can find out more about Raas All-Stars through our website (www.raasallstars.com), our social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.), and our email (hello@raasallstars.com).

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     Kalakriti Performing Arts is non-profit organization with mission to support Indian culture and heritage through artistic and visual dance forms. Over the years Kalakriti has worked with several other Houston non-profit organizations to support their fundraiser. Ramleela a signature event of Kalakriti held annually at VPSS Haveli. In a conversation with the founder of KALAKRITI, Kusum Sharma, said “I love the energy that RAS team brings to the event and seeing 200+ of our youth perform in our ethnic costumes to the traditional dance form keeping our culture alive here in North America is the exact reason why KALAKRITI was formed. We are very proud of the entire RAS team”.  

    For more information and for future event details please visit www.kalakritiusa.org or www.facebook.com/kalakritiusa

    Kalakriti & RAS look forward for your support next year and seeing each of you again at Raas All-Stars X!

  • Raas All – Stars 8

    Raas All – Stars 8

    RAAS

    HOUSTON: Raas All-Stars, the National Championship of Raas/Garba Circuit,, was this past Saturday, April 23, and it was an event our executive board has been anticipating since September! We were fortunate enough to have eighth powerful teams that were a treat to watch. CMU Raasta and RU RAGA took home the title of National Champion and Runner Up respectively. For the performers, the big weekend started on Friday at the mixer, where all the teams met and played games to get to know each other better. Also at the mixer, the teams met to choreograph and practice the annual collaborative dance, a RAS tradition where the eight teams are all mixed up and divided into eight new “teams” and perform a song prior to the show on Saturday. It was truly amazing to see all the performers put together a well choreographed and fun dance in such a short amount of time!

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    Saturday was a busy day for both the board and the performers as we approached the day we’ve all been preparing for. We had a great venue, Cullen Performance Hall at the University of Houston. Two of our amazing sponsors, Edible Arrangements and Kalakriti Performing Arts stopped by and gave delicious treats as well as told the audience a little about who they were.

    For the show itself, two of our very own board members, Raul Larsen and Samyu Rao sang the American and Indian national anthems. After that, we had our teams perform the collab dance they choreographed the night before. After they finished the collab dance, it was time for the teams to compete. All the teams danced flawlessly and powerfully. It was extremely difficult to find a clear winner. However, after much deliberation, the judges awarded CMU Raasta as the champions!

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    Our board was lucky to have a team of helpful liaisons, volunteers, and sponsors. Without them we would not have been able to have the kind of show we did. We would like to give them a shout out for all their hard work and dedication to this weekend! We hope all the teams received the National Championship and audience that they deserve, until next time.