Garba dancers mid-spin in chaniya choli under strings of festival lights at night

Garba, and the people you'll meet doing it.

Actually learn the dance everyone loves. Be dance-floor ready, not the one sitting down at Navratri. Beginners welcome; nobody learns alone.

Come learn your first steps

Garba Groove is a Bay Area garba class built for community: meet people, make friends, and go to Navratri together, while actually learning to dance in a circle. Classes run in Santa Clara, a short drive from most of the South Bay, no experience is needed, and everyone is welcome, Gujarati or not.

The garba class that's actually a way to meet people

A Navratri night teaches you nothing and you leave with the same contacts you came with. A once-a-season workshop fades before you've learned anyone's name. Garba Groove is different: the same room, week after week, until the steps live in your feet and the people next to you are your people.

You learn the way garba was always learned: in a circle, everyone facing in, nobody learning alone. That mistimed clap in your first class? Gone by your third, laughed about with whoever caught it next to you. And yes, it will be a real workout. That's just not why you'll come back.

Classes, from first step to leading the circle

Two levels, beginner and intermediate, both built so you can start from zero. Come to either, whenever fits your week, and go from "I can't dance" to the one others follow.

Beginner: the core steps, claps, and spins, taught from scratch. No experience needed, said loudly.
Intermediate: faster rhythms, richer sequences, real flow.

See class levels, pricing, and the next bookable dates →

Or see where classes run, and how far it is →

Beginner

Rhythms & Spins

The core garba steps, claps, and spins, taught from scratch. No experience needed, said loudly. Where everyone starts, including the people now leading the circle.

Intermediate

Grace & Barrels

Faster rhythms, richer sequences, real flow. The steps get more interesting, and it starts to feel less like following and more like dancing.

What a garba circle looks like

Garba as it's danced in Gujarat and wherever the diaspora lands. Photos of our own circle arrive with season one — until then, this is the tradition you'd be learning.

Garba dancers in traditional dress standing in a circle, photographed from the centre looking up at their faces — The circle, from the inside: everyone facing in, nobody at the back.

Photo: Saurabh sirohiya, CC BY-SA 4.0

Three women in chaniya choli spinning mid-garba with dandiya sticks raised, at Ambaji temple — Dandiya raas at Ambaji temple, Gujarat — the tradition our classes teach.

Photo: anurag agnihotri, CC BY 2.0

A dancer performing raas with sticks in a school gymnasium while a seated audience watches — Raas in a school gym — garba travels wherever the diaspora goes.

Photo: jackiembarr, CC BY 2.0

Straight from the circle

Class nights, as they happen

Circles mid-spin, festival prep, and the people you'd be dancing next to. It's the least polished thing we publish, and the most accurate.

Follow @garba.groove →

Garba is big here. Now it has a home.

The Bay Area hosts 50+ garba nights a season, from arena nights with touring artists to community ras-garba in school gyms. Navratri 2026 runs October 11 to 20, and the whole region will be dancing.

Garba Groove is where you get ready for all of it, and where the dancing doesn't have to stop when the season ends. Classes run in sessions; when enough of us want more, the waitlist brings more.

See what's coming this Navratri →

Stay in the loop

One short email now and then: new session dates, Navratri picks, what the circle's been up to. No spam, ever.

Your first circle is waiting

Walk in unsure, walk out with the steps. The circle handles the rest.

Join your first circle