Delivering a Garba workshop in Bedford

Marta Beccatini Pou
Sep 20, 2024
2 min read

Updated: Jan 7

Garba-Fusion research - a research of Garba and contemporary

My journey

Good morning today! Yesterday, we conducted a fantastic workshop at the Bedford Hindu Temple where Sagar Patel and I led a Garba session for the Bedford community. This was in preparation for a Pre-Navratri celebration happening the following day.

A large number of participants joined this workshop, organized in partnership with the Bedford Hindu Temple and Sagar Patel. Sagar Patel is a Bollywood choreographer born in Gujarat, Ahmedabad and grew up playing Garba. Thus, he was the perfect person to lead the class and I took the role of 'Garba-assistant'.

This provided an excellent opportunity for me to watch how Garba is taught incrementally and to observe the participants' responses. I also took this chance to discuss my Garba-fusion research with others and requested the temple's director for permission to use the space for my research and to develop a solo piece.

Take a glance at some highlights from the day:

Pre-Navratri celebration...

Saturday, 21 sept 2024,

A few days prior to our trip to India, we were invited to a pre-Navratri celebration at Bromham Community Hall in Bedford, following the conclusion of the workshop we conducted.

We were surprised to discover Garba celebrations in Bedford, as the Gujarati community here is smaller compared to places like Leicester and Wembley, where both Garba events and the Gujarati community are much larger.

As far as I know, Garba is widely recognized across India, but it is primarily performed in Gujarat and nearby areas like Mumbai.

In the future, it would be wonderful to organize a larger event in the Bedford area during the nine-day Navratri celebration, featuring workshops during the day and Garba festivities in the evening. Just an idea for upcoming projects.

I have included media from the event here:

put pictures of me and sagar before going to celebration