ANOOP LATHER said the Rasia form of Haryanvi dance is almost on the verge of extinction from the list of folk dances in the state. This form of dance is performed almost for a month, before and after Holi festival, in almost all villages, irrespective of caste, creed, religion or class in southern Haryana - particularly the districts of Palwal, Faridabad, Mewat, and Gurgaon.
The purpose of the workshop is not only to revive this dance form but also to make it popular amongst the next generation of Haryana especially among students of colleges and universities. This dance form has many specialties so far unknown to the young generation.
The old and experienced males stand between these two groups, singing Gaahe, a form of singing during the Holi festival, with Dholak, Chimta, Manjeera, and Harmonium. The young ladies dance when singing is going one for a few minutes, and the young males join the ladies in dancing. When there is a break in singing, the young ladies rush to their dance partners to beat them with lathis and sticks, and males protect themselves with their own sticks and shields. It goes like a play, a friend's game, for many hours, with dancing males and females, changing their turn. It is the main source of entertainment of the village folks during the basant season of Holi festival everywhere in rural sector.
Mr Lather said that he along with Dr. Chattar Singh, a historian and culturalist belonging to that area, documented the whole sequences of dance and singing and also the famous Dhulendi festival (spaying of colored water on each other on second day of Holi festival) in many villages of the area for three years consecutively in late 1980s. He recorded and video-graphed the peculiarities of Gaahe singing and dancing of male and female in a simple and natural way. But when he happened to revisit villages a few years ago , he found lack of interest among the youth for this dance and number of participants and spectators being small. Then he thought of reviving this dance form and make it popular again. This workshop will train the trainers in the colleges and universities of Haryana on this form of folk-dance, so that not only this dance is revived but also introduced as an item of competition in the next annual Ratnawali festival to be organised on Haryana Day, 1 November, 2012. After a rigorous training to some selected students and trainers of colleges of Haryana, a presentation of the dance form will be made in the university auditorium on the last day.