Maulik Patel grew up hearing stories from his parents about their struggles in rural India. Now as a third-year graduate student, he is on the board of Dola Re Dandiya, an Indian dance-style competition, where he assists in organizing proceeds towards education in rural and tribal Indian areas.
“A lot of the dancers' families are from Indian backgrounds, and, growing up, parents told stories of how they grew up in India and of how lucky we are to be in the U.S.," Patel said.
The official Raas All-Stars bid competition will be held Saturday, Feb. 15 from 5 to 9 p.m. in Memorial Hall. The competition features both bhangra and raas dance teams performing to earn bid points to increase their eligibility to compete at the national level.
“There is a committee that chooses and interviews various schools that are hosting a raas competition,” Patel said. “They get between 10 to 15 schools a year and give them the opportunity to be a bid competition.”
This is the first year Dola Re Dandiya will be in collaboration with the intercollegiate organization Raas All-Stars. Patel said the event is one of few competitions throughout the country that awards bid points.
“As the dance community increases throughout colleges, many different universities will try to host a competition,” he said. “Being considered a bid competition, you get a variety of larger teams competing."
All proceeds from ticket sales will benefit the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of India, established in India in the late 80's.
“The foundation is empowering rural and tribal communities in India through social, economic and gender inequalities,” Patel said. “Their basic goal is to be able to build schools in India to help educate children.”
Patel said since the organization's founding, it has been able to build thousands of schools and educate millions of children.
