Shadi

Overview & name: "Shadi" (Urdu/Hindi/Persian shādī, meaning "wedding" or "joy/happiness") refers not to a single codified dance but to the festive celebratory dancing that accompanies South Asian — Indian and Pakistani — weddings. It is best understood as an umbrella term for the exuberant social and performance dance of the multi-day wedding, concentrated above all in the pre-wedding sangeet and mehndi nights and in the groom's baraat procession.

Cultural & social context: Weddings in the subcontinent are extended, music-filled affairs, and dance is central to them. The sangeet (from Sanskrit, "sung together") is a dedicated music-and-dance evening that historically stretched over many days and is now usually held a few nights before the wedding; it originated in the Punjab region and has been adopted across Hindu, Punjabi, Gujarati and Pakistani communities. Family and friends prepare choreographed performances, elder women sing traditional songs (such as the Suhaag) to welcome the other family, and the evening opens into free social dancing. In the baraat, the groom's party dances through the streets behind a live dhol.

Character & feel: Joyful, high-energy, informal and cross-generational, full of laughter, teasing songs about in-laws, and broad participation.

Technique & movement: There is no fixed technique. The dancing blends folk forms — notably Punjabi bhangra and giddha, and regional garba and dandiya at Gujarati weddings — with popular Bollywood film choreography. Movement is loose, expressive and accessible to every guest, with amateur group routines and spontaneous social dancing side by side.

Music & rhythm: Driven above all by the dhol drum, together with folk wedding songs and, increasingly, Bollywood and bhangra film tracks; tempos are lively and strongly percussive.

Note: Because "shadi" literally means "wedding," the term denotes a living celebratory tradition rather than a standardized dance with a single origin date or governing body.