Garba 2010, Brandeis' Sikh, Hindu and Jain group's celebration of the Hindu holiday of Navratri, was a thrilling combination of sparkles, color, music and, most importantly, dance. This year's Namaskar event was held last Saturday in Levin Ballroom, and it was just as heavily attended as the previous week's Diwali celebration. The word Navratri literally means "nine nights" and is celebrated four times throughout the year. The festival is held in autumn and is also called Durga Puja, as it is a time to worship and honor the goddess Durga, as well as other important deities. After 10 minutes of watching dancer after dancer weave around the Levin Ballroom with flowing synchronized steps, I approached Namaskar executive board member Jasnam Sachdev '12 and asked her how they knew how to move so brilliantly.

She laughed good-naturedly and told me, "They all have learned it throughout their childhoods. It's sort of innate to their culture."

But beauty like that had to be practiced, perfected; it had to come from somewhere, I knew. With each song, the dances seemed to change, although somehow everyone maintained confidence in their movements and did not fall out of line even for a second.

E-board member Sriya Srikrishnan '12 clued me in: "People just pick it up over time. Their families teach them. I just learned a few weeks ago."

I had seen Srikrishnan dancing, and she was good. I would never have guessed that she was fairly new to Garba. It made me think that maybe I could pick it up. When she offered to teach me, I excitedly accepted.

As I found out, Garba consists of a few shuffles forward, a turn, a few shuffles back and another turn. What I thought to be different dances were actually just variations of the same routine. The tempo speeds up, arms move in different patterns and limbs become bouncier or more graceful, all depending on the music. The dance is performed in a line, moving in a circle, with someone at the front leading the way.

The two men who seemed to always be at the front of the line were very talented and passionate; their bodies flew so easily through the steps that their dancing was hardly recognizable in the movements I was able to do after practicing with Srikrishnan.

Several people I spoke to said they would rather have been taught the moves beforehand so that they could participate in the dancing more quickly, but I personally felt that the "observe and jump right in" method was much more inclusive because it didn't single out anyone who was unfamiliar with Garba. Additionally, the more experienced dancers were more than willing to help out whether you asked them or not, so learning the moves was not a problem. Everyone was really friendly and in high spirits, and, amazingly, nobody seemed to ever tire of dancing.

Half an hour later, I could move around the room without bumping into anyone, and it felt great to be sharing an important part of a culture that was previously unfamiliar to me.

Following the Garba, there was a prayer, as well as two other types of dance: Raas, in which dancers use wooden or decorative sticks to make sounds in time to the music with the sticks representing the sword of Durga, and Bhangra, a popular form of dance that today is often mixed with hip-hop samples to create a blend of the traditional and modern.

After attending this joyous festival, I plan on practicing my Garba so that next year at Navratri, maybe I can move more confidently like the dancers who, as Jasnam put it, "move like crazy," their bodies effortlessly enacting a ritual that has been passed down from generation to generation.