South Florida Hindu Temple became the vehicle to transport us back to our mother land on Saturday, February 28th, 2009 as the Grand Finale of Hindu Heritage Month Ended with Dances of India.

Over a hundred children graced the stage of SFHT in a program that was well organized and many dances were at a professional level.

The collaborative work of Mrs. Ranjana Warrier, who taught Indian Dance class for the Town of Davie, and South Florida Hindu Temple dances students of Dr. Neha Shah as well as South Florida Hindu Temple Bala Vihar Students.  The Davie students started with the Ganesh prayer dance in the classical Indian dance form followed by a short skit to set the stage of a young Hindu Teenager about to take a trip to India and her conversation with friends on her excitement and anticipation of the adventure she will encounter As the young girl arrived in India, she participates in the Indian Independance Day celebrations taking place.  The youngest SFHT Bala Vihar students (4 years of age) marched with orange white and green dupatas to Jana Gana Mana. SFHT bharat natyam class performed a beautiful classical dance to "Ram tum hare" a patriotic song in Hindi which depicts the love of India.

The Davie students than performed skits to help educate the audience on the National symbols of India, followed by the Fauna of India Animal dance which included a beautiful Peacock.  The folk dance segment began with the state of Bengal with a beautiful village dance. After that the students performed a typical Rajastani dance using tipnis followed by the beautiful dance of Garba which is commonly done during Navratri in the state of Gujarat.

No dance performance would be complete without the clanking of dandia sticks to a rythum and percision that most Gujaratis are born with... the Raas was done by students of SFHT bala vihar.  Davie students took stage again with the Classical Folk dance from Kerala followed by an informative session on the forms of Classical dances, their costumes - from Kuchipuri to Bharatnatyam to Mohiniattam.

From Kerala to Punjab with the Town of Davie performing a fast paced bhangra dance followed by the SFHT Bala Vihar students performing a another fast paced bhangra typically performed in a village during celebrations.  Next stop was Kashmir with a typical dance for celebrating a wedding was performed by the SFHT Bala Vihar students. Final performance was done by the Town of Davie students with Vande Matram leaving everyone in a state of nostalgia.

On this beautiful evening on the back patio of SFHT, after aarti, almost 700 audience members enjoyed dinner together which was provided by SFHT in honor of Hindu Heritage Month.