Indian Dances

Using the body as a medium of communication, the expression of dance is perhaps the most intricate and developed, 0yet easily understood art form. The fascination for Indian dance all over the world is indicative of the deep-felt need to use the human body to express and celebrate the great universal truths. Indian dance does just that in a heightened, reverential form. Also, since dance is physical and visual, it illuminates India's culture in a direct manner, playing on the sensibilities of the onlooker. Thus, those who are attracted to India will find the idiom of dance the best introduction to India's rich ethos and traditions.

One of the most enduring symbols of India is the figure of Shiv Nataraj or the dancing Shiva. Shiva's cosmic dance is believed to encompass creation, preservation, and destruction and this idea has been embedded in Hindu thought and ritual since the dawn of civilisation.

In India, dance and music pervade all aspects of life and bring colour, joy and gaiety to a number of festivals and ceremonies. In fact, dance and music are tied inextricably to festivity of any kind

Classical Dance Forms of India

India offers a number of classical dance forms, each of which can be traced to different parts of the country. Each form represents the culture and ethos of a particular region or a group of people. The most popular classical styles seen on the Indian stage are Bharatanatyam of Tamil Nadu, Kathakali and Mohiniyattam of Kerala, Odissi of Orissa, Kathak of Uttar Pradesh, Kuchipudi of Andhra Pradesh and Manipuri of Manipur. Besides these, there are several semi-classical dances that contribute to the plethora of Indian dances.

Apart from the classical dances, India is particularly rich in folk idioms. Each area has its own special varieties, be they martial, seasonal, ritual, sacrificial, celebratory, instructional or talismanic. It can vary from village to village, but they all share a common heritage of myths and symbols. Some of the folk forms of India are Chauu dance of Bihar, Garba of Gujarat and Bhangra of Punjab and Banjara of Andhra Pradesh.

The common root of all classical dance forms can be traced to Natyasastra, ascribed to Sage Bharata who is believed to have lived between the 1st and 2nd Century AD. The Indian dance forms are based on the instructions in the Natyasastra. It also contains deliberations on the different kind of postures, the mudras or hand formations and their meanings, the kind of emotions and their categorisation, not to mention the kind of attire, the stage, the ornaments and even the audience. All dance forms are thus structured around the nine rasas or emotions, hasya (happiness), krodha (anger), bhibasta (disgust), bhaya (fear), shoka (sorrow), viram (courage), karuna (compassion), adbhuta (wonder) and shanta (serenity). All dance forms follow the same hand gestures or hasta mudras for each of these rasas. The dances differ where the local genius has adapted it to local demands and needs.

Indian dance is divided into nritta - the rhythmic elements, nritya - the combination of rhythm with expression and natya - the dramatic element. Nritya is usually expressed through the eyes, hands and facial movements. Nritya combined with nritta makes up the usual dance programmes. To appreciate natya or dance drama, one has to understand and appreciate Indian legends. Most Indian dances take their themes from India's rich mythology and folk legends. Hindu gods and goddesses like Vishnu and Lakshmi, Rama and Sita, Krishna and Radha are all depicted in classical Indian dances. Each dance form also draws inspiration from stories depicting the life, ethics and beliefs of the Indian people.

• Folk Dances of India

Folk Dances of India

Joy is the core emotional experience common to all living beings, and one of its most spontaneous and transparent expressions is the act of dancing. Dance has been a function of man's life, even from the primitive to the most cultured community. Perhaps before man began to speak and to paint, he began to dance.

While the primitive man combined reality with deity, the cultured dance for pleasure and for the expression of art. The intimate association of nature with life is abundantly mirrored in dancing. some dances are tied up with particular locations and can be held only there and on prescribed occasions, generally annually. In preserved societies, dancing is universally recognised as an exercise akin to prayer, in which context it becomes a profound and an intense experience. India, with its vast variety of races and conditions has been a veritable treasure house of dance forms for untold centuries.

Most of the prevailing systems of Indian classical dancing which are governed by elaborate techniques and shown high degree of refinement, have had their origin in the dances of the common people, which still survive in as virile state as ever in tribal hamlets and peasant huts. The staggering multiplicity of races, of linguistic and ethnic groups, of religions, and of social organisation and structuring in India, account for an incomparable richness of folk music and dance forms. Here forms have survived, whose origins can be traced back to pre-historic times; new forms have grown up in other places and have continued in spite of many historical and sociological changes.

The Indian folk dance is simple without being naive, for behind its simplicity lie both profoundity of conception and a directness of expression which are of great artistic value. The concept of portraying emotion is generally speaking foreign to folk dance and what is expressed is natural and original. What is important here is not the grace of the individual dancer or the virtuosity of the isolated prose, but the total effect of the overwhelming buoyancy of spirit, and the eloquent, effortless ease with which it is expressed. The Folk, tribal and ritual dance in India is a world which found its own roots, moorings, nourishment, growth, flowering and maturity. It has yielded generation after generation of performers. They are the unique synthesis of music, ritual and celebration. A spontaneous expression of the people guided by songs which glorify nature, express traditional occupation or offer devotion to local deities. It has the capacity for ever renewing and rejuvenating themselves while maintaining a continuity with antiquity and tradition. Largely requiring collective participation, folk and tribal dances lend themselves to a range of basic formations in terms of floor patterns.

Whatever the pattern, every dancer harmonises in space with the other dancers, yielding a picture of beauty in order and rhythm. Generally people nourish a wrong notion as to the word 'folk' and mean folk art is village art. But folk comprises the common people, both inhabiting in the urban and the rural areas, and so folk art is common man's art. Popular Folk Dances of India

India's diversity in culture and tradition can be seen in its folk art tradition too. The Folk dance has different faces in different regions, from the Himalayas of the north-west to the eastern hills of Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, the plains of Gujarat, Rajasthan, U.P. and Bengal, the plateau of Maharashtra, Chhota Nagpur, the areas of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and south-western regions of Orissa, the coasts of the Eastern and Western Ghats and the southern parts of India. This journey into the heart of the folk dances of various regions bring you closer to the the life and spirit of the common people.

Dumhal is a dance performed by the menfolk of the Wattal tribe of Kashmir on specific occasions. The performers wear long colourful robes, tall conical caps which are studded with beads and shells. The party moves in a procession carrying a banner in a very ceremonial fashion. It is dug into the ground and the men begin to dance, forming a circle. The musical accompaniment comprises a drum and the vocal singing of the participants. Dumhal is performed on set occasions and at set locations.

Hikat, danced by women, is a modification of a game played by children. Forming pairs, the participants extend their arms to the front gripping each other's wrists and with the body inclined back, go round and round at the same spot. With wide range and variety of the ethnic groups, Himachal Pradesh is blessed with natural beauty and artistic history. People living in this natural beauty, adorn themselves for the dance at all times of the year, in all regions, and continue to express themselves through music and dance.

In the Kulu valley, the festival of Dussehra is celebrated with great pomp and show. Images of Raghunathji are brought from the different shrines to a central place, and then there is singing and dancing. Dances of the region are collectively known as Natio, though each may be meant for a different purpose. No festive occasion, including wedding and similar social ceremonies, is complete without dancing. All regions of Himachal Pradesh have their own dances. Mostly men and women dance together, close to each other in the formation.

The Namagen dance is performed in September to celebrate the autumnal hues. The costumes are largely woollen and richly studded ornaments of silver are worn by women. . The most picturesque amongst these are dances of Gaddis. The dances of the Doms and the Bhotiyas in Uttar Pradesh range from simple performances of rejoicing to ritualistic dances. The most amongst these is the Dhurang or Dhuring dance which is connected with the death ceremonies. Its objective is to liberate the soul of the dead person from evil spirits. All the dancers hold swords and dance in a circle. The movements are virile and reminds one of the hunting dances of the Nagas on the eastern borders of India.

The Jhumeila, the Chaunfla of Garhwal and the Hurkia Baul of Kumaon are seasonal dances. The Hurka Baul is performed during paddy and maize cultivation. On a fixed day, after preliminary ritual, the dance is performed in different fields by turns. The name of the dance is derived from hurka, the drum which constitutes the only musical accompaniment, and baul, the song. The singer narrates the story of battles and heroic deeds, the players enter from two opposite sides and enact the stories in a series of crisp movements. The farmers form two rows and move backwards in unison, while responding to the tunes of the song and the rhythm of the players.

A famous dance of Kumaon, Uttar Pradesh, is the Chholiya, performed during marriages. As the procession proceeds to the bride's house, men dancers, armed with swords and shields, dance spiritedly. Amongst the occupational groups, the most enthusiastic dancers are the dhobis, the chamars and the ahirs. The dhobis dance to celebrate any significant occasion. They sing and dance on the occasion of a birth or marriage, and during Holi or Dussehra. There are Rasa Dances that revolve around the early life of Krishna. The most interesting group of dances are the dances of the agricultural community which revolve round the annual seasons and which have a ritualistic and a functional dimension.

The Dalkhai dance is performed by women of some of the tribes in Sambalpur district in Orissa at the time of seasonal festivals. The dance is quite vigorous, and is accompanied by a set of particular musical instruments, played by men, of which the drummers often join the dance. A dummy horse version is the Chaiti Ghorha, danced by a community of fisherfolk. The performers are all men. Apart from dancing, the performers sing, deliver homilies of sorts, and offer brief dramatic enactments peppered with wit and humour. Dancing on stilts is fairly common among Gond children of Madhya Pradesh. The dance is popular in the Vindhyas and the Satpura ranges. This is danced in the rainy season; from June to August. The dancer, who has the balance on the stilts(Gendi) perform it even in water or on marshy surface. The dance is brisk, and ends with a dance in pyramid formation. This is generally confined only to children and the attraction consists in balancing and clever footwork.

In the villages where the wheat seedlings festival, Bhujalia, is celebrated, children prance on their gendis, collect near the village pond or the river in which bhujalias are to be immersed. Other frolicsome children, dancing to the accompaniment of musical instrument join the group and they dance together. Sometimes, womenfolk also join them, but they do not use stilts. The Gendi season begins on the day of Bak Bandhi festival in the month of June and concludes after the Pola dance celebrations in the month of August.

Brita dance Hajgiri

West Bengal, the state where our poets and writers belong to, has a rich tradition of folk art. Brita or Vrita dances is one of the most important traditional folk dances of Bengal. This is an invocational dance performed by the barren woman of Bengal who worship in gratitude after their wish being fulfilled. Quite often, this dance is performed after a recovery from a contagious disease like small pox etc.

Kali Nach is another dance performed during Gajan, in honour of the Goddess Kali. Here, the performer wears a mask, purified by mantras, and dances with a sword, and when worked up can make prophetic answers. The Bihu is the most widespread folk dance of Assam and is enjoyed by all, young and old, rich and poor. The dance is part of the Bihu festival, that comes in mid-4 April, when harvesting is done, and continues for about a month. The participants are young men and girls, who gather in the open, in daytime. They dance together, but there is no mixing of the sexes. The dance is supported by drums and pipes. In between, the performers sometimes sing, usually of love. The most common formation is the circle or parallel rows.

This includes a dance by young girls, called Hajagiri, which also demonstrates multiple balancing skills and has its own set of instruments for accompaniment. At the time of principal festivals, men and women dance together, often in the compound of their own houses.

Andhra Pradesh is the home of many tribes like Banjaras, Chenchus and Mathuris. All have dances of their own. Some dance around a fire, some have many magical and trance dances. The agriculturists amongst them dance during certain festivals. On the occasion of festivals, dancers, dressed in their best, exchange visits with other villages and are received as honoured guests wherever they go. The youth, followed by musicians, come first, while the old men are the last to arrive. Then they all dance together, holding sticks which they strike against one another to keep time. These are the Dandaria dance.

Bhanjara

The Bhanjara-s or Lambida-s are gypsy tribes who live in Hyderabad. Their vivid colour sense expresses itself in the picture costumes of the women with wide flaring skirts and bright blouses embroidered and studded with mirrors. Their dances are associated with house-hold tasks, cultivation and sowing, planting and harvesting. Forming a great circle, the women go round and round, clapping and making gestures that indicate their agrarian livelihoods. There are nearly twentyfive groups of tribes which inhabit different parts of Tamil Nadu. Early tribesmen include Todas and Kurumbas. Their rites and rituals, seasonal festivals revolve around agricultural functions. Devotional singing and dancing is dedicated to the deity.

The womenfolk of Tamil Nadu have three closely related dances, which can be performed at any time but are seen at their best during festivities. The simplest of these is the Kummi, in which the dancers gather in a circle and clap their hands as they dance. As an extension to this is the Kolattam, where instead of clapping, the participants hold small wooden rods in their hands and strike these in rhythm as they dance. As part of the Muslim observence of Moharram, men disguised as tigers go about in the streets dancing what is known as Puli Vesham, Tiger Disguise. Kargam is the most common form of folk dance in Tamil Nadu. Originally, it was dedicated to Mariamman, the goddess of health and rain. The Kargam dance is essentially part of a ritual and is performed by men balancing pots filled with uncooked rice, surrounded by a tall conical bamboo frame covered with flowers. The musical accompaniment comprises a drum and a long pipe.

Dollu Kunitha

Karnataka region has tribes who are predominantly hunters and food-gatherers. They have a large repertoire of songs and dances which revolve around hunting, food-gathering and burial funeral rites. The dodavas of Karnataka perform the Balakat dance at harvest time. The ritual dances revolving around worship of Lord Subramanya are called Kavadis. The state has an immense treasure house of other ritualistic dances, all denoted by the generic term Kunitha. In Puja Kunitha, there is a wooden structure with a deity on the head; Devare Thatte Kunitha, Yell-ammana Kunitha, Suggikunitha and others, each taking its name from the deity or the symbol or instrument which is balanced on the head, or held in the hand. The Dollu Kunitha is a popular drum dance of Karnataka. The men have large drums, decorated with coloured cloth, slung from their necks, and they beat the drums as they dance with nimble movements of the feet and legs. The dance is at times accompanied by songs, which are either religious or in praise of war

Padayani

Padayani or Padeni in colloquial speech, is one of the most colourful and spectacular folk arts associated with the festivals of certain temples in southern Kerala (Aleppy, Quilon, Pathanamthitta, and Kottayam districts). The word Padayani literally means military formations or rows of army, but in this folk art we have mainly a series of divine and semi-divine impersonations wearing huge masks or kolams of different shapes, colours and designs painted on the stalks of arecanut fronds. The most important of the kolams usually presented in a Padayani performance are Bhairavi (Kali), Kalan (god of death), Yakshi (fairy), Pakshi (bird) etc. The Kolam consists primarily of a huge headgear with many projections and devices with a mask for the face or a chest piece to cover the breast and abdomen of the performer. The whole performance consisting of the dancers or actors who wear the kolams, the singers who recite a different poem for each Kolam, and the instrumentalists who evoke wild and loud rhythm on their simple drum called Thappu and Cymbals, etc., takes the form of a procession of Kali and her spirits returning after the killing of the Asura chief Darika.

Ghode Modni Dindi Tarpha Nach

The pocket of Goa, for over four centuries a Portuguese colony, still observes an annual Carnival, European fashion. For three days the people surrender themselves to a mood of exceptional gaiety. Apart from pageants and spectacles, the boys and girls indulge in dances of their own.

Ghode Modni is a dummy horse presentation, where the dancers, attired gorgeously and armed with swords, recapitulate, through step and movement, the valour and deeds of the Goan warriors of old. In Maharashtra there are religious devotional dances called Dindi and Kala. These dances describe the playful attitude of Lord Krishna. Dindi is a small drum like a 'Tamate'. The musicians in the centre comprising a 'Mridangam' player and a vocalist give the dancers the necessary musical background. Around this music, the assembled men and women dance joyfully. This is usually danced on the Ekadashi day in the month of Kartik. In the hilly regions of the north-west, the Kokna tribals dance to the accompaniment of the tarpha or pavri, a wind instrument made of dried gourd. Because of this, the dance is known as Tarpha Nach or Pavri Nach. The performers hold each other by the waist and dance in close formation. Men also dance separately, and this includes feats of skill, like forming a pyramid or rapidly revolving a dancer round a stout pole.

Dhamyal Dandiya Tera Tali

Dhamyal is the leading dance of Haryana, often also known as the Duph. The Duph is a circular drum, played nimbly by the men dancers, while the dance can be performed by men alone or along with women. Lahoor, the women's dance of Haryana is generally performed during Spring, when work in the fields is over. The dance is often accompanied by witty questions and retorts rendered in a sing-song manner. The folk dances of Rajasthan clearly shows the colourful nature of this desert state.

Dandiya is one of the popular folk dance and in this, a large group of men dance around vigorously playing with big sticks in their hands. There would be a drummer in the centre who plays the 'Meddale' skillfully. The dancers shout ho, ho joyously and perform this dance during Holi festival and other occasions.The Bhils of Rajasthan have a variety of dances, which correspond to the agricultural cycle. The Ghumer dance, Raika and Jhoria are some. The Gher dance is a favourite dance of the Mina tribe who are akin to the Bhils. Valar is typical dance of the Garasias.

The Kamar tribe performs the Tera Tali which is an elaborate ritual with many elements of dance. It is generally performed by two or three women who sit on the ground. Manjiras, or small metal cymbals are tied to different parts of the body, mostly the legs, and with a cymbal in either hand the dancer strikes these in rhythm. The head is covered with a veil, and at times a small sword is clenched between the teeth and an ornamental pot balanced on the head.

Jawara Nongkrem Dhol Cholam

The Jawara is performed in the Bundelkhand area of Madhya Pradesh. It is essentially a harvest dance-reflecting the gaiety and pleasure of the peasants who have reaped a good harvest. The dance is performed by men and women together. The costumes and jewellery worn by the women are colourful. The women carry baskets full of jawara on their heads and although the dance is very vigorous they are able to balance these baskets very skillfully on their heads. The accompaniment includes a rich variety of percussion, stringed and wind instruments. The state of Bihar has a variety of dance forms which includes religious dances, the dances of the adivasis and the famous Chhau dance of the Seraikella of Southern Bihar. The most important dances are Karma, Jatra and Paika dances. On the Ekadashi day of Bhadra month, a branch of Karma tree is planted and Pooja is offered by dancing. Men, women and children who after drinking Handia or rice beer dance continuously for 3 days. Among the tribals of Meghalaya are the Khasis, who celebrate with song and dance when the paddy is ripe for threshing.

Nongkrem Dance of Meghalaya is celebrated during autumn at Smit, the cultural centre of the Khasi Hills, to essentially commemorate the evolution of Khasi indigenous democratic states called Hima. The kings of Manipur encouraged the martial arts, because of which evolved a variety of combat exercises, which later lent themselves to dancing. One of the most thrilling of the dances is the Thang-ta, performed by young men with sword and shield. The drum, by itself, enjoys a privilege in the dances of Manipur. There are several kinds of drums, each intended for a particular occasion.

The festival of Holi, in spring, is the real time for drum dances, such as Dhol Cholom. Besides the ritual and harvest dances, there are the simple recreational dances which capture movements of animals and birds and everyday functions. The tribes of Arunachal Pradesh nourish dances, dance dramas, pantomimes and operas based on Buddhist stories and legends. There are organised parties of performers, as well as facilities for training. The dancers themselves make the masks, representing demons and animals connected with Buddhist lore, and the gorgeous costumes. Performances take place mostly in monasteries during festivals. The dances of Sikkim have little relationship with Indian traditions except in the cases of mask dances which have the same format as the Buddhist dances still practised. The women here have their independent folk dances but the men by and large are attracted only to the monastic versions.