About Us

CMU Raasta is Carnegie Mellon University’s premier garba-raas dance team. We aim to spread West Indian culture through folk dance performances on campus and at competitions across the country. Garba-Raas originates from the Hindu festival Navratri. The word Navratri translates to nine nights in Sanskrit, nava meaning nine and ratri meaning nights. During the Navratri festival in Gujarat (a state that lies along the western coast of India), people dance in large groups after the Durga Pooja (an offering in praise of the goddess Durga) to a live orchestra and devotional songs.

Since it was founded in 2012, Raasta has brought creativity and energy to the stage at every performance. Over the years, CMU Raasta has emerged and remained a perennially competitive team. We have qualified for the national championship for the last 6 years, capturing 1st place in 2016 and 3rd place in both 2017 and 2018. Despite, not being able to the compete the past two years, due to covid, we came back stronger than ever and qualified for the 2023 national championship. CMU Raasta has evolved as something beyond a competitive dance team and has become a family. Being a part of CMU Raasta is an endless ride of joy, dance, competing, and most importantly fun. We plan to uphold that spirit and essence by creating another outstanding and memorable competitive season.