Rahee Patel: The Gift of Dance

Rahee Patel

Rahee Raas

Rahee RedStepper

Rahee Raas

Rahee Ballet

Name: Rahee Patel

Year: Senior

Major: Exercise Science with minor in Non-profit Management

Hometown: Wabash, IN

Dance History: jazz, hip-hop, tap, contemporary, raas

Rahee Patel started dancing at an early age, but was primarily introduced to American styles. However, upon entering IU her freshman year, Rahee joined both the IU Redsteppers and IU HoosierRaas. Rahee served as HoosierRaas captain during the very successful 2017-2018 season. She grew up listening to raas music and celebrating Navaratri with her family, during which she partook in the traditional dance of garba. A good point that Rahee brings up is that “every single region in India has a different dance type and you don’t see that in the United States.” However she does note that the collegiate raas circuit is engaging the dance more since “we take a very simple concept and we’ve made it something more. We still do the folk stuff, but we make it more modern.” In fact, before coming to IU, Rahee says she was not in touch with her Indian culture. According to her, “[she] was very stuck.” By joining ISA and raas, she added a bicultural dimension to her identity. Now that she has found a team and a group of Indian friends, she says “we all talk about Indian topics, we do Indian activities, and we celebrate Indian holidays together.” She furthers this idea of togetherness by saying the non-Indian members of HooSher Bhangra “have learned so much now. They know how to say certain things and they have indian outfits and they come to events. Being a part of a team for one year, they’ve learned so much that no other person would know.” Rahee applauds HoosierRaas for allowing her to grow so much as a student and leader by giving her “the one consistent thing” out of the everyday, crazy life of a college student. For her, dance is “lowkey everything.” Keeping IU HoosierRaas alive is something she considers vital. With a lot of passion she exclaimed, “do you know how bad it would hurt 4 years from now someone saying Hoosier Raas is no more at IU? That would kill because it’s something that gave all of us so much the last 4 years. It means way too much to people who have worked way too hard to keep us alive here at IU.” For her, dance is where her people are, and her people influence her to be her best. She even admitted that she didn’t think her passion for raas could grow, and then this past year it did; “It’s just a gift that keeps on giving.”