Raas All – Stars 8

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!

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!

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.