Ahmedabad : Ridham of the Navratri 2011

The most impressive artistry of the Rasa dances of Gujarat and Saurashtra is displayed in the Dandiya Rasa by men. It is a counterpart of the Garba of the women. The dancers use sticks at the end of which tiny bells (ghungrus) are tied so that they give off a clear jingling sound when they strike one another. This dance has a very complicated rhythm pattern and even though the dancers begin in a slow tempo, the dance develops in such manner that each person in the circle not only performs a solo dance with his own sticks, but also has a complex multiple relationship with both his partners on either side as also partners opposite him in the circles. The circle keeps breaking sometimes into two concentric circles and sometimes into three or four circles within the orbit of a larger circle.