Last Friday, April 18, Raas Ruckus, UC San Diego’s competitive Raas-Garba dance team, could see the entire audience from where it stood behind Coachella’s Gobi Stage. Moments later, the team would step onstage, breaking out into an energetic and hypnotically complex routine. Bathed in flashing turquoise and orange lights and swathed in Coachella’s signature fog machines, the dancers swirled in rhythmic and ever-shifting formations across the stage. The crowd erupted into applause.
“Before we performed, we actually had some time,” said Raas Ruckus choreography co-captain Ananya Kandikonda. “The way the stage was set up, I could actually see the audience and who was watching, and people walking in and holding up their phone, or cheering, or dancing. I could actually see that before we went onstage.”
Raas Ruckus performed alongside Indo Warehouse, a New York-based collective of South Asian artists, during both weekends of the Coachella music festival. I had the opportunity to speak with Raas Ruckus choreography captains Kandikonda, Anoushka Savgur, and Vatsala Swamy after Weekend 1 of their historic performance.
Founded in 2002, Raas Ruckus is a competitive collegiate dance team in the national Raas competitive circuit. Raas and Garba are dance styles from Gujarat, India, which are traditionally performed during the Navaratri festival season. The Garba style is characterized by intricate sequences of steps, twirls, and claps in a circle to the beat of traditional Gujarati folk music. Raas draws on similar dance techniques while incorporating partner choreography and handheld dandiya sticks.
For competitions, Raas Ruckus adds a fast-paced twist to the traditional steps, costumes, and music of Raas and Garba.
While the team primarily focuses on competitions, it also performs at weddings, Diwali festivals, events on campus and across Southern California, and most recently, Coachella.
Indo Warehouse showrunners first discovered Raas Ruckus through its videos on Instagram and TikTok. Chaya Kumar, a dancer and choreographer working with Indo Warehouse, reached out to Raas Ruckus via social media over spring break, inviting the group to its Coachella 2025 performance.
The Raas Ruckus co-captains described their complete disbelief upon hearing the news. “I thought Ananya [Kandikonda] was playing a prank on us or something,” Savgur said. “I didn’t think it was real for the longest time, until we had to get on a call with [Kumar], and that’s when I realized that this is actually real.”
With in-person rehearsals scheduled for Week 2 and rapidly approaching, Kandikonda, Savgur, and Swamy spent the entirety of spring break choreographing and planning the performance, sending their videos to Indo Warehouse to report their progress. Amid the commotion of Week 1, the team met almost every night to learn its set at planned practices from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., which often ran later.
This quick turnaround wasn’t the only challenge the team faced; performing with a collective meant that it needed to stay in constant communication with Indo Warehouse to coordinate its performance — especially musical duo Anvaya, composed of singer Sonia and DJ Kaushal, for whom Raas Ruckus performed as backup dancers. Last Thursday, I spoke with Sonia to learn more about collaborating with the team.
“I was able to review [Raas Ruckus’s videos] ahead of time along with our choreographers to see how to integrate this and how to make this the best performance it can be,” Sonia said.
Early in Week 2, the Raas Ruckus dancers traveled to Burbank for in-person rehearsals with Indo Warehouse. Alongside the other performers, they were finally able to experience the way their choreography would fit into the rest of the set.
“Getting everybody in the same room together was amazing because there’s so much more that comes to life when you’re in person,” Sonia said. “[Raas Ruckus] all walked in, and I saw them, and I knew we were going to have a great time.”
Sonia explained the importance of Garba dance in the duo’s personal lives, which inspired the two to include it in their set.
“When we were handed this opportunity to perform at Coachella, we obviously had to really think about, ‘What do we want to bring to the table?’” Sonia said. “Garba music and dance is a huge part of our childhood — Kaushal’s and my childhood. We grew up doing it. … And so, for us to have that opportunity was incredible.”
Savgur said that these rehearsals also helped her see the performance’s wider impact.
“Something that Indo Warehouse really emphasized throughout the weekend was that we are making history with our performance,” she said. “Raas and Garba have never been on a stage like this before, at least in the U.S., and in front of so many people who don’t even know it. So, it’s kind of crazy that we were able to be a part of that history.”
Dancing on the Gobi stage stood in stark contrast to its experience on the competitive circuit, as the team was face-to-face with audience members and could constantly see them dancing, reacting, and recording. For Swamy, one of the most impactful parts of Coachella was engaging with the audience even while dancing.
“In hindsight, I feel like it went by so fast,” she said. “But when I close my eyes, I can remember people’s faces and their reactions to watching us.”
On stage, the dancers’ twirling dandiya sticks and flowing dresses further enlivened Sonia’s sweeping vocals, her voice ringing out and blending with Kaushal’s synthesized house beats. Raas Ruckus’ energetic choreography complemented songs like Anvaya’s 2023 electronic hit “Haa Re Maa,” creating a dynamic, engaging show.
For graduating seniors Kandikonda, Savgur, and Swamy, Coachella 2025 was the last major performance of their Raas-Garba careers. As they reflect on the experience, each dancer remembers it as a celebration of the lasting bonds they have made.
“It was a great way to celebrate the last seven years of being so involved in this,” Kandikonda said. “It’s a once in a lifetime experience that you’re having with all your best friends around you. It’s insane. I can’t recover from that.”
