Garba vs Dandiya: What's the Difference?

If you have tickets to a garba night and you are not sure whether you will be clapping or wielding sticks, the answer is probably both. Here is how the two dances differ, where each comes from, and what that means for your first night on the floor.

What is garba?

Garba is the circle dance of Gujarat, performed during Navratri around a central lamp or an image of the goddess. Dancers travel counterclockwise, everyone repeating the same step, with claps and spins built into the rhythm. It is devotional at its root (the circle honors the goddess at its center) and communal in its form: no partner, no pairs, just one circle everyone belongs to. In December 2023, UNESCO inscribed “Garba of Gujarat” on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. For the full story, start with our guide to what garba is.

What is dandiya raas?

Dandiya raas (often just “dandiya”) is garba’s high-energy sibling. Dancers hold a pair of short decorated sticks, the dandiya, and strike them against a partner’s sticks in time with the music, usually rotating through partners as two rings of dancers move past each other. Where garba centers on the goddess, raas is traditionally associated with Krishna and the raas lila, the playful circle dance of Krishna and the gopis. The sticks are often said to echo that play, and some traditions link them to the sword dance of the goddess as well.

What’s the actual difference on the dance floor?

The aarti, the ritual of circling a lamp in prayer, is the traditional hinge of the night: garba as worship before it, dandiya as celebration after. Modern events keep roughly that shape even when the schedule is loose.

The music shifts with the dance, too. Garba songs tend to start slow and accelerate steadily, pulling the circle faster with every verse. Dandiya tracks arrive already upbeat and stay there, because the stick hits are the rhythm section; you will hear the clack of a thousand pairs of dandiya keeping time with the drums.

Do garba and dandiya happen at the same event?

Almost always. A typical Navratri night, whether a community hall in Fremont or a convention center with thousands of dancers, opens with garba, pauses for aarti, then shifts to dandiya. The Bay Area hosted more than 50 garba and dandiya events in 2025, and the overwhelming majority billed both dances on one ticket. So you do not choose between them; the night carries you from one to the other.

Which should a beginner learn first?

Garba, in most cases. You need no partner and no equipment, and because the whole circle dances the same repeating step, you can learn by watching the person in front of you. The basic garba steps loop in patterns of claps and turns that your body memorizes quickly. Dandiya’s basic hit pattern is also beginner-friendly, but the partner rotation and stick timing add one more thing to think about.

At Garba Groove classes we teach both: garba as the foundation, dandiya raas layered in once the rhythm is in your feet. Everything is taught from zero, and you do not need to be Gujarati (or Indian) to belong in the circle. If you want to walk into Navratri already knowing the steps for both halves of the night, book your first class and start with your first circle.

One last practical note: whichever dance you are learning, dress for movement. Our guide on what to wear to garba night covers traditional outfits and what actually works when the music speeds up.